COLUMN: Serving Up Unhappy Meals

ADRIANA CAPILLA-GARCIA
THE SIGNAL
Frustrated fast food workers across the nation have been participating in strikes and walkouts, demanding their pay be raised from $7.25 to $15 an hour.

Call me crazy, or even the bad guy, but I think asking to start at $15 an hour as an employee in a fast food company after having no higher education or prior experience is a tad much.

Some college graduates don’t even start out making $15 an hour, which translates to a little more than $30,000 a year.

I understand these workers are frustrated and upset at the fact that they feel they are some of the hardest-working employees in these million-dollar chain restaurants and make the least amount of money.

It is also understandable that making about $15,000 a year is not enough to live above the poverty line or without the help of government assistance.

My dad has always worked in the construction and insulation industry, by choice. My mom worked for the operations department of GCCISD, by choice, before her health took a toll on her and she was medically forced resign her position of head custodian.

She started out back in 2000 as a regular custodian, only making about $6 an hour with four kids. She’d come home exhausted every night and still try to keep up a beautiful home for our family.

It was a struggle, and I’m sure she wished she could make more because the job she had was very physically tough and unglamorous, to say the least.

Many Americans feel like they have no choice.

These Americans feel like they are stuck at the poverty line, enduring displeased customers who complain because the fries are cold or because there was not enough ketchup with their meal.

That feeling of having no choice can be very hard to overcome, especially in an environment without hope for advancement.

I believe in working hard to climb up the ladder. People who stand out and excel in what they do deserve a pay raise.

I saw my mother do it in her industry, and I saw my father not do it in his. He stayed stagnant in the same position for years because he was content with settling.

These strikers have a bigger goal than just getting their pay increased. Their goal is to raise awareness to the minimum wage situation and hope to get it increased federally.

Anyone familiar with economics or government knows that increasing the federal minimum wage can mean a loss of jobs and an increase in the prices of common goods people buy.

Companies can either take a hit on their profits, or pass on extra costs to the customers. Historically, companies tend to pass on the costs to consumers. Will it really make a difference to raise the minimum wage if the cost of living will increase as well?

The American economy is a brutal cycle that needs a balance between the minimum wage and the cost to live. It is irrational to realize that some people make more money unemployed and living off of government assistance than working and making the federal minimum wage.

A strike is meant to bring awareness to a situation and bring forth change. The efforts of the fast food strikers are rapidly gaining recognition.

Working for a living should make you more money than not working. I may be opposed to a $15 an hour minimum wage hike, but I will never be opposed to positive change for those who challenge the situations they are dissatisfied with and are willing to work hard to revolutionize it.