A 19-year-old fast food boss on $50,000 a year gives his 4 biggest takeaways from his first 7 months of management

Jason Cabrera manages 22 people and their payroll. “Anything that goes wrong, anything that goes right, it all comes back to me,” he said.

Jason Cabrera, 19, told Insider his four biggest takeaways from his first seven months managing a restaurant. Zerb Mellish for Insider

By Anna Cooban

A 19-year-old manager of a chicken restaurant earning $50,000 a year told Insider what he’s learnt in his first seven months on the job.

Jason Cabrera, general manager of the Allen, Texas branch of Layne’s Chicken Fingers, started out buttering toast for $9.25-an-hour at the restaurant in late 2018, and now manages 22 people.

Garrett Reed, the CEO of Layne’s, told Insider in a separate interview that he would “usually have at least a handful of seasoned managers, people in their late 20s, early 30s.” However, he promoted three teenagers to general manager roles in recent months as the industry-wide labor shortage meant few experienced workers had applied.

Cabrera told Insider his four biggest takeaways from his first seven months:

He embraces his responsibility: “Anything that happens inside of that store is on me.”

When Cabrera accepted the job in January — one week after his 19th birthday —…