A TikToker has called out a woman for criticizing increasing wages for fast food workers while educational assistant wages remain lower in California, drawing nearly half a million views
The video was made by Luis (@luis.wtf) in response to @misspriss19766, who was expressing frustration that fast food workers in the state of California could expect to make $22 if a bill raising the minimum wage for that sector is passed.
“How much sense does that make, that somebody with zero education can go to work at a McDonald’s and make $22 an hour, but somebody with an education working in an educational system, molding young minds, makes $15.53?” she says in the video.
@luis.wtf #stitch with @MissPriss19766 #greenscreenvideo #luiswtf #fyp ♬ original sound – luis🇲🇽
In his response, Luis pushes back against the idea that different jobs are inherently worth less in compensation.
“You put a lot of emphasis on California, and the fact that some teachers only make $15.53 an hour in California, implying that California is expensive to live in,” he says in the video. “Good job, you’re right, California is expensive to live in, and the cost of living in California continuously goes up. Does that mean people who work fast food, retail, or any job that does not require a degree, don’t deserve to live?”
He also criticizes the idea that fast food employees are not important to the daily lives of people who have higher levels of education and are working in different fields.
“Now don’t get me wrong, I believe teachers should get paid more, and not because they went to school and everything, but because they have to work with fucking children and that sounds like hell,” he says. “An argument that I see far too many times, kind of like this, where fast food’s only supposed to be for high school students, summer jobs. I’ll do you one better. What if they were working after school? Summer and after school. Who’s going to be flipping your burger at noon on a fucking Wednesday when you don’t want to cook your lunch? At the end of the day, we can fight for better wages without putting another group of people down. What is so hard about it?”
Some viewers agreed, with some sharing in the belief that all workers deserve a living wage.
“People seem [to] not understand that everyone deserves a livable wage,” one commenter wrote.
“They miss the point also,” another user said. “Be mad that a teacher isn’t making enough, be mad the minimum wage hasn’t been raised for EVERYONE.”
“I have my degree and struggle for my wage in this low-wage healthcare field and I’m fighting for everyone to get raises cause it’s rough out here,” a third argued.
Others agreed with @misspriss19766 regarding the valuation of education over the fast food industry when it comes to compensation.
“I think anyone working in the US needs to be paid a livable wage,” one commenter wrote. “But if minimum wage increases drastically they’ll be getting paid the same as someone with a degree and work experience which isn’t fair since we spent time and money to go to college to get ‘better’ jobs.”
“Okay but teachers do need to make more than others though,” a second viewer claimed. “C’mon.”
“It’s (because) they are gonna pass a bill in California that makes it $22 an hour in fast food, but that doesn’t increase every other job pay…that’s the problem at least for me,” a third added. “If fast food goes up why can’t the rest go up…but it won’t. I was offered $17 an hour at multiple law firms here as an executive assistant…everything needs to go up, but they are only fighting for fast food workers.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Luis via email regarding the video, as well as to @misspriss19766 via comment on the video as other methods could not be identified.
