Restaurant and Food Industry: Where the Fork Did They go Wrong?
According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 12.1 million Americans worked in the restaurant and food industry. While most people in that industry are unable to make a livable wage, almost 4% of the population work in the industry.
I spoke with Kayla Heck, a lineworker at Spoons Soups, Salad and Sandwiches in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has been working there for about seven months, and in the industry for almost two years now. While she is grateful to have a steady job and a healthy workplace, the restaurant industry is far from perfect. I spoke with Kayla about her experience.
Can you give me some background on where you work and what you do?
I work at Spoons. After clocking in, I check the list of items that need to be completed and if there are no customers I start on those which often includes refilling backups, cleaning counters, dishes, rotating the soup, restocking and more. I am usually in charge of the register which includes talking to the customers, taking orders, using our system as well as helping with money.
What is your favorite and least favorite part about working in a restaurant?
I love my coworkers and the regulars. It’s nice to have something to do and I work with a lot of my friends so that’s fun. My least favorite, besides the pay, I would have to say the customers. I like most of them but half of them don’t know how to treat a service worker, you can tell when people have worked in the food industry before. I feel like that should be a requirement to graduate high school or something, if everyone spent an hour of their lives working in the industry I think they would all be a whole lot nicer.
Do you think food service workers should be getting paid more?
Yes, 100%. I believe food service workers should make at least minimum wage before tips, not including tips. I mean for example you could go to Mcdonald’s and make $18–20 an hour while I am making $10.34 before tips. Most people don’t understand if tips are offered as a part of the bill, that usually means a good chunk of their income is from tips. I have been living paycheck to paycheck and still struggle as a full time student and a part time worker working a minimum of usually 15–20 hours a week. Even if I was just making minimum wage before tips are added in, that would make such a difference in bills. All good service workers do work to make your food and without them, there’s no way the food would be prepped in the first place.
