Deli posts sign demanding employees work harder than owner for $15 an hour: 'That’s ridiculous'

It takes an insane level of insensitivity to be cruel to people during a financial crisis, and yet businesses in the service industry never fail to disappoint. A sign from a deli in Florida looking for new hires has sparked fierce debate on Twitter on the economic inequality in the United States and the complete lack of sensitivity. The image from the deli was posted on Twitter by @HaitianDvorce, and they also revealed that the sign is from 'Jason’s Deli' in Melbourne, Florida, reported Daily Dot. The franchise said it was looking to hire people in a number of positions but the descriptions of the expectations from employees were awful. Right at the top, it says that 'mediocre' people will earn the minimum wage of $8.65 an hour in Florida, which is set to increase at the end of September.

Some of the criteria for the varying hourly wages jobs were demeaning. The deli said it would pay $9 for people in their first job and to those who are willing to learn. Under $12, the deli said it wanted to hire people who are 'better than most' with 'zero drama' and if that wasn't enough, they went to add, 'works like two people.' Many people called out the business, saying if they wanted to accomplish the work of two people, they should be hiring two people. Getting one person to do the work of two is exploitation, added some Twitter users. The $14 per hour category wants the employee to 'never be late,' and 'care like the owner does.' The final position—$15—calls for someone who “outshines and out performs the owner.” 

Twitter users called out the deli for the descriptions and the poor wages. It's no secret that the income inequality in America is getting wider and wider and this is primarily driven by poor wages across America. The federal minimum wage in America hasn't risen for more than 10 years. The national minimum wage rose in step with productivity growth from 1938, when it was first introduced, until 1968. Since then, the minimum wage hasn't accounted for inflation which meant that employees earning minimum wage had a fraction of the purchasing power of those from earlier generations. According to The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), if the minimum wage did rise in step with productivity growth since 1968 it would be over $24 an hour today. "If the productivity of less-skilled workers has not kept pace with average productivity, this was by design. It was not the fault of these workers; it was the fault of those who designed policies that had the effect of devaluing their skills," noted CEPR.

The service industry, in particular, has been guilty of overworking its employees and paying paltry wages and offering no benefits to minimum wage employees. The pandemic drew further attention to the poor wages when many employees decided that risking their lives for poor wages wasn't worth it. This resulted in a shortage of workers, forcing many companies to offer higher wages to encourage employees to return to work. Some, who are parents, didn't have anywhere to drop off their children with schools closed have decided against it. Many argued that companies always had the power to pay better wages but simply chose against it.

Many on Twitter were highly critical about Jason’s Deli's sign. One person wrote, "Bro, if I'm outperforming the owner he better give me the f*cking company." Some said it was a sharp indictment of capitalism. "That was the part that got me. Any business that expects their employees to be as personally invested, or more so, than the actual business owner??? For a whopping $15 That’s so ridiculous I can’t believe they said it out loud," commented one person.