Slavery Ads on C-List

Ads copied, pasted & altered (except for original spelling errors) from C-list (green font denotes name change to protect the allegedly guilty):

In Need of Line Cooks (Lizard Room/The PapSmear HouseLounge)
Located downtown on the corner of Slavery & Indentured Servitude. Must be open to work 3pm-11:30pm Monday-Saturday.Must being willing to learn to roll sushi.Must be able to handle the stress of two restuarants from one kitchen. Will get a set schedule. Please don't call or stop in! Email resumes to fuckmeintheasslounge@slavery.com
Location: Lizard Room/The Papsmear House Lounge
Compensation: 7.40
This is a part-time job.

***
Family Style Restaurant:
Entry Level Management (30-40 hours/wk). Starting Position - Lead Night Cook. Full Time. Paid Vacation. Demostrates Leadership Skills. Great Work Ethic - Role Model Conscientious. Works well within a team environment. Great at cost control Great at food quality. Career minded in the food industry. Compensation: $8.50-$8.75/hr.

The Lizard Room wants a line cook to handle the stress of making food for 2 restaurants, roll sushi, and maintain a flexible schedule (be available 6 days a week, but not necessarily work or get paid) for $7.40 with no benefits. Notice they can’t even spell restaurant correctly in their ad. $7.40 is minimum wage. The dishwasher is making the same amount by spraying dirty dishes and running them through a machine. I’m not suggesting that the dishwasher get paid less, but should the line cook only be getting the same for work that is more difficult? You could probably make just as much or more working at McDonald’s or holding one of those cardboard signs that advertise Eat at Joes or Going out of Business.

It wasn’t that long ago that I saw a dishwasher position posted on C-List for minimum wage. They wanted them to be able to pass a drug test. WTF? If I was working in a hot, stinky dish room, getting paid $7.40 an hour, I would have to take drugs just so I wouldn’t kill myself.


The Lizard room menu features sushi rolls ranging from $6-8 per roll with the most expensive rolls being $16-18. The poor little line cook in the back has to work almost 3 hours to pay for one of those top dollar rolls that s/he made. You will also find on the menu Asian fusion cuisine and signature martinis for $12. They have a fancy website featuring a half naked chick, and advertise being the premier college bar. I always thought that independent businesses treated their employees better than the corporate conglomerations.

In the second C-List add you can manage a Family Restaurant for $1 more/hr—that is if you meet their high quality standards.


There are other independent restaurants that pay a little more. Take SuckMyDick Restaurant for instance—an upscale establishment that makes all their food from scratch. For $9/hr you can have keys to the restaurant, open the restaurant, prep, clean, maintenance equipment, be on-call without pay, create your own recipes for daily features, cook food for catering or in house parties while simultaneously getting slammed by the lunch/dinner rushes, and fix the toilet. Benefits? Zero. You can smoke pot and expand your culinary skills, but other than that . . . No paid vacation. If you take any time off, you just don’t get paid. If you’re sick, you have to bring in a doctor’s note even though they don’t offer health insurance. It doesn’t matter that you work full-time. Oh and that day that you requested off a month ago—well, you have to work. Sorry. But you say that you have formal chef training and a Culinary Arts degree. That’s nice. You still only get $9/hr.

This isn’t the glamorous life of the iron chefs on food network with their pretentious dishes. This is real life. Artists don’t get paid.

So when you go out to eat and order your pita bread with hummus and your grass fed filet mignon, remember the one who cooked it to order and arranged it nicely on your plate. Your expensive little dinner is probably more than what they make in a day. And when looking at the unemployment rate in Michigan also consider those people who are working, but getting paid minimum wage without benefits. Go to school, get an education! Some of these people have gone to school and do have an education. And even if they don’t have a degree, doesn’t everyone deserve to get paid what they are worth? If someone wants to work and pay their bills, they should have the opportunity to do so. $7.40/hr does not equal life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It equals slave labor. You could make more prostituting yourself out on C-List—only the authorities have been cracking down on that sort of thing.