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@chameleon54 wrote:

The fast food chains often cop a bad rap for supposedly exploiting young kids, but I have found the opposite to be the case. Sure they employ a lot of school aged kids because they are cheap labor, but they also provide a first step on the employment ladder and great experience on how to actually put the mobile phone down, hustle, and get stuff done in a limited time frame as well as industry standard training programmes such as food handling, customer service etc.

 

As well as the child mentioned in the previous post I have another child who has just left school and not really sure what they want to do. They had a part time, after school job at a different fast food joint ( the sandwich one ) and immediately on leaving school a few weeks ago simply took up extra hours as a shift manager at a neighbouring store to be working 30 - 40 hours per week. Basically just walked into full time employment. 

 

One of my nephews now in his late 20,s, had an after school,  burger joint job and on leaving school  could not find further employment. He stayed with the group, worked his way into employment at their highest profile, central city location, worked his way up the food chain ( pun intended ) and is now the senior manager of the store. His has recently been offered the job of managing two other stores ( on top of the central city one ) owned by the chain and then a pathway into management at company level rather than store level. He is currently deciding whether to take up the offer or move into accounting, something he has been studying for several years.

 

There's no doubt employers in other industries place a value on the resumes of kids who have a consistent history of working in the fast food chains as they know, if they can stand the pressures of that industry, they are likely to be quality workers who know how to move, be flexible and get the job done.

 

I suspect the main problem with the kids in the OP,s link is they expect to be sitting in the managers chair the moment they leave school, rather than starting at the boring bottom and working their way up.

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If only they could teach them to cook and assemble a decent hamburger, their training would be complete.   Getting the order correct once in while would also be a BIG help

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@myoclon1cjerk wrote:
They left out some like Chemist Warehouse. Good that Morrison and co.are trying to put the kibosh on the union movement.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/here-s-a-running-list-of-australian-businesses-that-have-underp...

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There's a distinct difference though between companies that illegally underpay staff and companies that offer genuine traineeships and apprenticeships with salaries reflective of untrained employees abilities..

The whole underpayment of employees thing by so many companies raises another fundamental question of whether Australia's wages are a true reflection of the employees productive capacity when compared to other countries that we compete with in the global economy.

We may have been an island, fairly isolated from the rest of the world in the 1950,s and 60,s, but with modern communication and transport systems, nations can no longer live in an economic bubble. Wages must be internationally competitive or employment will simply go elsewhere.

This isn't just a random theory, its already happening. For proof you need to look no further than Australia's once vibrant manufacturing sector. Its already gone along with the millions of jobs it provided.