Have Some Inititative

Today's news is raising the minimum wage for fast food workers. The complaint is that they cannot live on $ 7.25 an hour. This is true,I agree, but is fast food work a career? My first job was at Burger King. They would not give me any hours, so I moved to Hardee's, who gave me 40 hours a week. I came in at 5am and I made the biscuits. I had decided that I wanted to work a job after graduating from high school. I told my parents that I would prefer that to going onto higher education. Wisely, they agreed. The first six or eight months, I loved it. I had money to spend. I still lived at home. Keep in mind, at that time minimum wage was like $ 3.85 or so an hour. However, after a while of dealing with hateful customers, the greasiness of the work and the food, not to mention the really hard work, I decided to get some education to do something else. It is my opinion, that in this country, you can do as little or as much as you want. Opportunities are out there. No one can stop you IF you really want to succeed. You can find a way. I am not trying to disparage those who work in fast food, but it is more of a job for the young and unskilled. It can be a stepping stone for a career in food service. One can move up, gain experience and parlay that into a career. You can couple that experience to a culinary school or a business school and build it to a good job. Ambition is the thing that one needs to go forward. You cannot expect an employer to pay top dollar for unskilled labor. Business exists for profit. With the dollar menu and inexpensive fare, the industry cannot support a huge minimum wage. It will shut the business down. No one owes anyone a living. Hard work and a plan, these are the tickets to a living wage.