Fox News Host Jesse Watters Gets Heat From Netizens For His Remarks on Fast Food Workers

The soaring cost of living as well as the problems brought along with it, are topics of debate all over, be it social media or traditional media. In one such instance, Fox News Host Jesse Watters got heat for the comment he made on the PBD podcast. During his book promotion segment, he talked a bit about the fast food worker's wages and one of his remarks didn't sit well with people from this field. "You’re very good at math, so see if you can do this in your head. You probably can. If you’re making $20 an hour to work at a fast food restaurant, alright. Is that six figures? Are you making six figures?" he said, which had everybody thinking if he was ignorant or was simply failing to do the math. Patrick Bet-David quickly replied to his statement statement saying, "No, no, $40,000 a year." 

"So, if your husband or wife is also there, you’re making $100,000 as a family. Both working at McDonald’s," Watters continues, saying that it's crazy, as the "job doesn’t require much, it’s inflating the entire, you know, labor sector and the Happy Meal."

The short clip of the slip is now going viral on social media with the post of X, getting over 770K viewers in less than a week. Many took to the comment section of the post to talk about how far from the reality Watters sounded, "Hmmmm…how about some quick math. A full year is 2080 hours, including vacations and holidays. At $20/hr over 2080 hrs, that amounts to $41,600/year. At an average tax rate of 30%, that’s take-home pay of $29,100. I’d like to see Jesse live on that", reads one of the top comments, by user Alfred Wallace.

While others pointed out how people don't get to earn the maximum wage as they are not offered a 40-hour work week, "I'm going to point out that places like McDonald's seldom give a worker a 40-hour week. The average worker doesn't get paid holidays, vacation time, or benefits. Hours are kept low so that the corporation doesn't have to pay for those things," said Linda Osika. 

Moreover, not all fast food workers get $20 an hour as this has been implemented only in the state of California, so far. In reality, the average salary for a fast-food worker in the U.S. can be between $12 and $20. It was only on April 1 of this year, that the minimum wage law took effect in California which was achieved after years of campaigning. 

People on the internet were also disheartened by the fact that Watters was fueling the existing stigma around fast food work, which is that the "job doesn't require much." In reality, the job is both physically and mentally taxing. The fast food workers are also required to work in a fast-paced environment which can be extremely demanding. All this is topped with the customer entitlement which the workers are often subjected to. During the Pandemic, when everybody was asked to stay home, workers in the fast-food industry did not enjoy the luxury of working from home, being one of the essential workers.

During that time, fast food workers were also subject to high levels of workplace injury as well as harassment. As per a survey, 87 percent of fast-food workers were injured on the job in the previous year with burns and cuts being the most common injury. So, it would be safe to say that the Pandemic made their already poor working situation worse.

The short clip posted on X by @The Recount has more than 497 comments, all firing at Jesse Watters.