The owner of Paesan's Pizza in Albany, New York has sparked backlash online after saying in a social media post that low-level workers don't deserve to be paid fairly.
In a TikTok, Frank, the owner, had an employee ask him for his two cents on "liberal wages"—whatever those are—for basic, entry-level jobs, like working in his pizzeria.
Frank must be on some mission to make sure nobody ever wants to work for him or something, because his answer basically insulted people who work at places like "Burger King and Hooters"—or, you know, his pizza shop.
Frank says that expecting to be paid fairly is ridiculous for a class of worker who "live in their mom's basement." Cool, Frank. Then run your pizzeria yourself.
Scoffing at the idea that workers who've never owned a business themselves would even have opinions on how workers should be paid, Frank then launched into a long diatribe about how entry-level workers need to work their way up to decent pay.
Citing conservative boilerplate nonsense like "the market," he centered his argument on two examples: toll booth workers who obtained good pay and benefits by unionizing; and Hooters restaurants that had to close down when minimum wage increased.
In both cases, workers expecting to be paid fairly "for standing in a booth collecting money" resulted in those jobs essentially disappearing, according to Frank.
Which is an interesting take, since "standing around making pizza" is essentially the same as "standing in a booth collecting money." Machinery can and does do both, and neither job is exactly curing cancer.
More to the point, raising minimum wage is also not the only factor that forced Hooters to declare bankruptcy, by the company's own admission.
It was also due to skyrocketing food costs and soft consumer spending—because nobody makes enough money to afford anything anymore. Economics, like everything, is nuanced.
Not in Frank's world, though. He insisted that the notion of paying "teenagers" fairly is ridiculous, despite the fact that years of data show teens are no longer the core demographic for jobs in places like pizzerias and fast-food anymore anyway.
They've been replaced by whole-a*s adults desperate for literally any job to feed their kids due to entry-level corporate and clerical jobs routinely now requiring credentials like master's degrees.
One wonders who exactly is working at Paesan's Pizzeria, given Frank's take. Is he closed during school hours so that he can employ only high school kids or something?
So what is the solution, according to Frank? Get in on the ground floor and work your way up like he did, starting with a paper route when he was a teen. Never mind that that model no longer exists and that the cost of living is exponentially higher than when Frank was a teen! Living in a fantasy world of right-wing propaganda where workers are the problem is far more exciting
Naturally, those rendered braindead by decades of conservative lying about economics loved Frank's take. But those in touch with reality were not impressed.
Just another day in America, where the economy would supposedly be destroyed by paying fairly despite every other developed economy on Earth having figured it out just fine, for decades.
Anyway, we wish Frank the best of luck with his business model of insulting regular workers. The rich and successful are famously the core demographic of both the staff and customer base of $5-a-slice pizzerias so it'll probably work out great for him!
@thekalenallen/Threads
U.S. Mint
