Fast food workers get sympathy for plight, but not support

More than 60 of the nation’s cities have been hit with a wave of fast food employee walkouts, according to CNN.

Fast-food behemoths like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Wendy’s have been the most notable targets of these protests.

The walkouts, some of which have been documented in Houston, are a direct result of “Fast Food Forward,” a movement that demands union recognition and a minimum hourly rate of $15 for a growing number of fast food workers.

No need to shake the sand out of your ears or clear the smudges off your glasses, rightfully confused reader — you read that number correctly.

Demanding $15 an hour, more than double the national rate for the minimum wage, seems like a steep request for any minimum-wage worker to be making in today’s economic climate — especially when one sits back, objectively analyzes the situation and realizes how dispensable these employees are in the eyes of their employer.

Assuming that these workers would like to see their demands met, it’s critical that we look at the situation from the perspective of those that have the power to do so — their employers.

Seeing as there is an abundance of job-seeking Americans, these companies don’t have much incentive to grant the demands of the workers that are, from their perspective, behaving like the pesky post-thunderstorm mosquitoes that we all know and love.

With just a simple flick of the wrist, these colossal corporations could rid themselves of the employees that are causing them the slightest bit of discomfort, simply because of the high degree of demand there is for such a limited supply of jobs.

For a corporate giant like McDonald’s, replacing members of their workforce — regardless of the volume — would be an almost unsettlingly easy task. There are millions of unemployed Americans who wouldn’t dare jeopardize a job that, according to the Boston Globe, pays an average hourly rate of $9.08.

As unlikely as a win is for these jilted workers, let’s take a moment to pretend that we live in a society where victory isn’t completely out of reach for our world’s underdogs, and that these workers did, in fact, receive an increase in hourly pay.

In this world, hypothetically, the rate of pay modestly increased to $11 an hour. It sounds like a win, and would surely be received as one. Think about this situation from a grander perspective, though, and an increase in pay translates to an increase in company spending.

If these companies are looking to make a profit — likely, since that’s why they got into the business — they’ll be forced to cut costs elsewhere. This includes, but isn’t limited to, downsizing the number of their employees they keep on the payroll.

Sounds like a risky gamble.

Sure, many of the employees who have chosen to participate in the strike have justifiable grounds for their actions. The Los Angeles Times noted that many of these workers are the sole breadwinners for their families.

A rate of $9 an hour might not sound like a bad gig to many college students, but that kind of compensation simply isn’t conducive to sustaining a family over the long-term.

In the few cases where these workers are able to provide adequate residence, water, electricity, school supplies, winter coats, birthday gifts, cell phones, tennis shoes — the key word here is “few” — to their dependents, there’s very little hope for these families of having any sort of a financial safety net.

Rainy day funds and savings accounts don’t tend to exist beyond the imaginations of these underpaid laborers. Sure, many of these employees are given access to a 401K. Unfortunately, these accounts are rarely accessible until past the age of 55, with some employees even nearing their 70s.

These employees, as well as their families, are forced to face several decades of living without any kind of economic safeguards.

As college students, it seems like it would be all too easy for us to relate to the plight of the underpaid, the underappreciated and those facing uncertain futures.

However, the manner in which they’ve jeopardized what little financial security they have has alienated themselves from those who see their solution as being half-baked and self-destructive.

The protests have elicited the sympathy, but not the support, of both students and faculty.

Biology sophomore Jeff Suarez voiced his pessimism with the protest effort as a whole.

“Either way, these people will always be at the bottom of the pay scale. Even if they get the pay increase, the price of everything else will go up to compensate for that, and the cycle will never be any different.”

Finance professor Thomas George described what he believes is one of the roots of the plight of the underpaid.

“The only way to get ahead is to make yourself more valuable. Your contribution to the revenue of the company you work for has to be enough to support your wage rate.”

In a manner that resonated with the collective goal of UH students, George added, “The only way to make yourself more valuable, in that sense, is to acquire skills through training, job experience… or getting yourself an education.”

Senior staff columnist Cara Smith is a communications junior and may be reached at [email protected]