Labouring for Labour

I got my first job offer yesterday. Though, it wasn't exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Last week I put a few resumes out to businesses on Bank Street. Mostly just to little mom and pop shops with help wanted signs in the windows - an Indian restaurant with a cheap but good lunch buffet, a tiny greasy spoon diner, a grocery store...

Yesterday the owner of the diner called and asked me to come in for an interview. So in I went, arriving a few minutes early, ready with customer services stories and examples of superior waitressing moments from my Chrysler Club days. We go sit at the table at the front of the restaurant where he asks me about my current employment situation. Sometime last week I decided it would be easier to get some sort of part time job if I told perspective employers that I was working on a project like my previous contract and just needed some extra money for my student debt. So I describe my fictional research contract, and reassure him that I'm pretty flexible with my availability. Other than the French class I want to take from 9-12 on weekdays, I can work anytime. Knowing that the restaurant industry often prefers employees to be available during meal times, I told him I could look into taking an evening class instead, provided the hours and pay would be sufficient. That's when he told me that he pays his girls $5 an hour.

Now, I know servers don't usually make a lot in wages. When I have had serving jobs before, the hourly wage was really just a wee bonus compared to the amount you get in tips - something somewhat unplanned for that goes into your account every two weeks - off which you live. But $5 an hour? Come on. As I see it, and only I need see it as it's my labour to market, there are two major problems with this proposed wage.

First of all, it's illegal. General minimum wage in the great province of Ontario is $7.15 an hour. The last service job I had in Alberta, I was making minimum wage there - a grand $5.90 an hour. Ninety cents more an hour than he offered, and that was over 3 years ago! And I'm a pretty big believer in minimum wage and in workers' rights (in spite of my Alberta upbringing and some of my feelings about labour disputes between management and white collar employees), so there is no way that I will be made settle for a job paying less than that which I am statutorily entitled.

Now, there is a different minimum wage for servers of liquor in Ontario. They must be paid at least $6.20 an hour. This leads me to my second issue with this offer. Most menu items at this particular diner are priced between $3 and $7, meaning that the total bills aren't going to be very high, in turn meaning that the 10% tip one can count on in a place like that isn't going to amount to much either. Were there liquor service, which there isn't, it may be a bit better in the tip department. So with the ups and downs of the service industry, and the likelihood of the new kid getting the slowest shifts and smallest sections, I decided that it wasn't worth my shuffling around of my desired French class to accommodate the available shifts - 6:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. I told the manager that I needed at least minimum wage as politely as I could, and told him that I wouldn't change my schedule around for less than that, thanked him for his time, and wandered off down Bank Street in search of help wanted signs.

I had seen one near the Rideau Centre on my way into the interview. At Starbucks. Now I'm not the biggest fan of Starbucks Coffee in the world, nor their marketing practices, nor their global domination, nor their lack of use of fair trade coffee... but they pay. More than minimum wage. Something every unilingual poli sci grad should keep in mind...