I had an interview for a shift manager position at a fast food place. I've previously worked for this particular company but not this location. When i worked there before i was quickly promoted to shift manager because the old shift manager kept failing inspections and i was the only person who seemed like they gave af about cleanliness and the store had failed so many inspections they were being threatened with getting shut down if they failed again. After the first month of me being shift manager i had my team good enough to pass the inspection. 2 months later we got a perfect score. So it's safe to say they want me back. I have stellar employee reviews from that store. Plus im independently serv safe certified and i have around 10 years of experience in the service industry, 4 of which is management experience. The store manager that was interviewing me was like “im gonna go pull your application right quick” and then was in the office for a looong time. She came back out looking kinda defeated and i thought she was gonna tell me she didnt want me. But she sat down and asked about my availability and such and then she kinda forced herself to tell me the starting pay. I make 17.50 base pay at my current job but i also make tips so after the tip pool is divided up i make around 19 an hour give or take a dollar. She very reluctantly told me the starting pay for shift managers is 15 an hour and that she was in the office so long because she had called her boss to try to get him to agree to a higher starting pay but he refused. I very professionally was like “im sorry for wasting your time then, i really can't go under $17″ and she was like”no im sorry” and wrote her name and number down for me and was like “if you cant find anything else call me”
I feel so bad for her. That place looked awful. They are desperately trying to get managers because they have none. At all. No shift managers. And you can definitely tell. But i just cant go down 2-4 dollars an hour to take a job in fast food and have more responsibilities than i do now. The people saying “noone wants to work anymore” are the exact people who refuse to pay a decent wage.