Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Class warfare.]

"I want every one of our neighbors to have a job again, a well-paid job, so we don't have to argue about minimum wage for someone working at Burger King. Let's get them a real job."—Brad Schimel, Republican candidate for Attorney General in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Or, here's an idea: Let's make fast-food service jobs "real" jobs.

By which I mean: Pay the people who do that work, which is as "real" work as any other work, a livable wage with benefits; allow them to unionize; disallow their employers from letting them work too few hours to qualify for full-time pay and benefits; disallow their employers from shuffling them between franchises so they never work full-time at any one location; respect the work that is done by human beings at these establishments.

There's no reason that someone who works at a fast food restaurant shouldn't be able to make a living doing it. There's no reason that someone shouldn't want to keep working at a fast food job, if they enjoy it aside from the abysmal exploitation.

And there's no reason we should ignore that the people making these arguments about fast food employees are talking about an industry disproportionately staffed by young women of color, many of whom are young mothers who are the sole providers for young children.

I challenge every bootstraps bellowing jackass who tells people who work in fast food to get a real job to instead use their energies and influence to turn fast food jobs into real jobs.

*crickets*