Paramedic Makes A Great Point On The New $15/h Work Salary For “Burger Flippers”

As you may already know, a new ruling in New York now states that the standard wage for fast food workers has now been increased from $6.25/h to $15/h, more than a 100% increase. This of course is an amazing result for those who spent time protesting and rallying towards the increase, as well as an even more amazing result for those who work in the fast food industries flipping burgers.

However, many people are in disgust with the argument, stating that these “burger flippers” are young, uneducated and don’t deserve the huge increase. Another argument that has been thrown around is of those who spend many years of college and university for hard-to-get qualifications just to make the same wage.

Jens Rushing, a paramedic from Texas, decided to take the new pay rise for fast food workers to Facebook with his own view on the subject, but it is not what you think. Rushing, even though his skilled job pays the same as the “burger flippers,” stood in guard with those in the fast food industry, stating “That’s exactly what the bosses want! They want us fighting over who has the bigger pile of crumbs so we don’t realize they made off with almost the whole damn cake.” – the crumbs being your peny-less change and the whole cake being the peaks pay checks.

Rushing’s post can be seen bellow (click on the picture to enlarge).

“Fast food workers in NY just won a $15/hr wage.

I’m a paramedic. My job requires a broad set of skills: interpersonal, medical, and technical skills, as well as the crucial skill of performing under pressure. I often make decisions on my own, in seconds, under chaotic circumstances, that impact people’s health and lives. I make $15/hr.

And these burger flippers think they deserve as much as me?

Good for them.

Look, if any job is going to take up someone’s life, it deserves a living wage. If a job exists and you have to hire someone to do it, they deserve a living wage. End of story. There’s a lot of talk going around my workplace along the lines of, “These guys with no education and no skills think they deserve as much as us? F**k those guys.” And elsewhere on FB: “I’m a licensed electrician, I make $13/hr, f**k these burger flippers.”

And that’s exactly what the bosses want! They want us fighting over who has the bigger pile of crumbs so we don’t realize they made off with almost the whole d**n cake. Why are you angry about fast food workers making two bucks more an hour when your CEO makes four hundred TIMES what you do? It’s in the bosses’ interests to keep your anger directed downward, at the poor people who are just trying to get by, like you, rather than at the rich a**holes who consume almost everything we produce and give next to nothing for it.

My company, as they’re so fond of telling us in boosterist emails, cleared 1.3 billion dollars last year. They expect guys supporting families on 26-27k/year to applaud that. And that’s to say nothing of the techs and janitors and cashiers and bed pushers who make even less than us, but are as absolutely crucial to making a hospital work as the f**king CEO or the neurosurgeons. Can they pay us more? Absolutely. But why would they? No one’s making them.

The workers in NY *made* them. They fought for and won a living wage. So how incredibly petty and counterproductive is it to fuss that their pile of crumbs is bigger than ours? Put that energy elsewhere. Organize. Fight. Win.” – Jens Rushing

Rushing’s statement caught the attention of thousands via Facebook, with over 40,000 shares and hundreds of thousand more in views.

According to NPR, the wage increase from $6.25 to $15 an hour will be distributed in increments to more than 100 different brands which hire fast-food workers in the space of 3 years in the state of New York.

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