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Social Norms By Barbara Ehrenreich: Article Analysis

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The main argument of this article is to show the reader the stuggle of working at a restaurant owned by a large corporation. When many people go to restaurants, they don't normally think about the servers or think about how dificult their lives really were. All of Barbara Ehrenreich's coworkers made very low income, with the richest one making only $10 an hour, and many of them live in motels and trailers. Not only do they live in horrible conditions, but their managers treat them horribly; they will get yelled at for simply sitting down or eating a snack away from all the customers. I agree with the authors stance; while I have never personally working in the restaurant, oth my mother and brother work in the room service section of a fancy
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“Why Tipping Is Wrong,” an article found in the New York Times discusses the issue of lower minimum wage for tipped workers. Writer, Saru Jayaraman, the director of the Food Labor Research Institute at Berkeley, argues for the reformation of the law that allows a lower minimum wage for tipped workers. She presents her argument by targeting those who go to restaurants, lawmakers, the waiters/waitresses, and even the restaurant itself. By targeting this specific audience, she is able to speak to those who interact with those working in the industry and those who will be able to make a change in order to fix it. Rhetorical devices are vital in order for arguments to be successful.

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Terri Babbage wrote an article called, “Dignity for the Workers”. She talked about the reality that workers in low earning jobs have to face, how difficult it is for them to meet all there needs. There wages are low and they dont get much time off. Terris’ essay shows sympathy saying, “We cannot allow this ruthless exploitation to continue, especially since the companies know they are doing wrong”. (Babbage 12)

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A restaurant worker’s work is never complete: many restaurant workers feel that they are public servants because they make harsh comparisons, generalizations and arguments. Barbara Ehrenreich’s piece titled “Serving in Florida” represents the condition in which workers are treated while working in a restaurant. Ehrenreich describes this condition as unfair because she must perform duties as if they are “strictly theatrical exercises” (130). By this she means that even if there is no work left to do, the managers do not want to see workers sitting. Ehrenreich believes that she is performing in a play while she is at work because she must pretend to be doing work at all times so that the managers, who sit around, don’t yell.

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In this article, entitled “Hold The Tip”, Leonid Bershidsky states” Countries where tips are small are richer in culinary delights.” According to Bershidsky, tipping is the American tradition, and the tip of twenty percent is a social norm. Bershidsky gave us an example when a restaurant owner decided to eliminate tipping, and this decision goes against American tradition. The U.S. has an unusual system that allows restaurant to pay waiters only $ 2.13 per hour since they make the difference between the federal minimum wage and median hourly pay in tips. In addition, Bershidsky mentioned about the hourly rate that a cook receives, and about the fact that a waiter is paid better than a person who interact with food.

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When interviewing members of society about their jobs, we can see a division between the positions that are respected and those that are not. Society looks down upon physical labor and idolizes people who have office jobs. The people who have jobs that require physical labor are often treated poorly by customers and are put into less than ideal situations; however, these people find personal satisfaction through wages, their coworkers, and experiences. Living in an underdeveloped community, people often have to work a minimum wage job to earn a living. Genesis Chavarria, an 18-year-old Latina, began to work at Wingstop at the age of 16 to support her family and herself after her mom lost her nursing job.

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Waitresses must always be busy. There is rarely a moment where they can sit down and relax. In “The Working Life of a Waitress”, written by Mike Rose, whose mother was once a waitress, there is one instance where his mom tells him that the waitresses must be all over the

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When selecting a restaurant for quality meals, one may also find themself looking at the price of all the food they immediately rule out any place that has cheap entrees or drinks. “High prices for drinks are often a form of price discrimination,” which illustrates how easily people can be taken advantage of when searching for the elusive “good” meal (Cowen

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Acquiring a job, whether it be in a doctor’s office or a fast-food restaurant, can transform a person. Jobs tend to educate employees, either indirectly or directly, both about themselves and life in general. In Climbing the Golden Arches, nineteen year-old Marissa Nuñez discusses how her employment at McDonald’s transformed her into a mature and skilled employee. Within her personal narrative, Nuñez mentioned how she faced both pleasant and unpleasant circumstances while working at McDonald’s, all which prepared her for her future career. At McDonald’s, Nuñez learned how to fulfill her role of being an employee by becoming an expert at all the placed stations, dealing with the various types of customers she encountered on a daily basis, and

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Ehrenreich mentions “The regulation poster in the single unisex rest room admonishes us to wash our hands thoroughly,” in her essay; However, there is almost no one following the instruction because “there is always some vital substance missing—soap, paper towels, toilet paper”. Although workers may want to follow the instructions, it is impossible for them to do so because they “never found all three at once ”. The effect of describing the deficient rest room is to highlight the fact that the owner of the restaurant is so stingy to the workers that the owner refuses to provide enough substance. Thus, the readers can better understand the terrible environment that the workers live in. In short, with mention the dreadful environment of the kitchen and the rest room, the audiences are able to know that lower workers work in a grubby environment and how they have been treated by the upper class.

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“Fast food restaurants have us hooked on to their tasty food. You See a lot of people buying fast food because how good it tastes. Well let me tell you it is not good for your health. Why do fast food places lower their prices because they know people will buy it if it doesn’t cost that much and most people buy it cause that`s how much they can afford”. Fast food places is a way to not cook every week I feel bad for people when I go to McDonald’s and ask them, do you know what you’re eating in they say

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