The new minimum wage is going to kill me. As a student on the run, I eat too much fast food, and now that the minimum wage has jumped by 50 cents I'm already paying for it. The other morning I stopped by my friendly neighborhood Taco Bell and left wondering, "where have all the cheap tacos gone?"
The girl behind the counter rang me up for my usual coffee and Fiesta Breakfast Burrito, and I handed her a couple of bucks as always. She needed more.
"I'm getting more food for this, right?" I asked the girl in the purple visor.
"No, we've raised the prices because of the new minimum wage," she said.
I paid more than I ever had before for my heartburn-inducing meal. To top it off, the service was slower than ever. Everyone's getting more money, but no one's working any harder for it.
Let's face it, my cost of living just went up. I'll need a COLA just to buy one ... with a burger and fries of course. Don't forget to super size it too.
How much does $4.75 help anyone compared to the old $4.25 anyway? After Uncle Sam takes his cut it really isn't much help at all. The pay hike doesn't do much for folks stuck making the minimum, and it gnaws away at the consumer. I could stomach the rise in pay if it really made a difference.
I took my food and headed for work - another miserable day in retail. I'd have to work harder selling linen (yep, I sell linen ... ) to the usual dummies to pay for my crummy food. It's another day at work where old ladies solicit me, everyone wants a discount and one neighborhood nut claims she's from Pluto. Her skin is really pale, and Pluto's really far away from the sun ... maybe she's for real.
The Sept. 27 deadline to apply for graduation could solve both problems. I'll graduate in December and begin a career in journalism, leaving retail behind. My life in retail includes a brief stint at Kmart, completed by a red vest and Blue Light Specials. It's worse than you can imagine - trust me.
After graduation I may even be able to reap the benefits of the new, robust, minimum wage. Rumor has it that young journalists don't make much, but if my friends at Taco Bell are any proof, then low paying jobs are getting better every day.
[ Golden Gater Online September 5, 1996 ]
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Formatted by Steve Thoemke (sthoemke@nermal.santarosa.edu )