Fast-food employees are not paid enough to support a family, according to a recent study by an assistant professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations.

In the study, author Emily Labarbera-Twarog explains that the median wage for fast-food employees is $8.94 an hour. Though that is higher than minimum wage in Illinois, Twarog said it’s still not enough for someone to live on.

An employee who works 40 hours a week would earn a gross income of $18,595.20 annually. Champaign’s cost of living is $30,795, according to Find the Data.

Shabria Carter, a Champaign Burger King employee, said she has been working in the fast-food industry since she was 16 years old. She has worked at McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Burger King.

“I’m just one of the employees who takes it the way it is, as long as I am not getting paid under minimum wage. You’re not going to pay me $7.25 when it’s $8.25,” she said.

Twarog said it doesn’t seem fair that fast-food employees are so underpaid for the sizable amount of work that they do.

Even Twarog started working in the food industry in high school and has held other positions since. Because of her experience in the fast-food industry, she doesn’t agree with the low wages.

“Historically, companies have been able to get away with it,” Twarog said. “The value of work is the value of work, and people should be paid as such.”

Spencer Chikahisa, freshman in LAS, said he’s never had a hands-on experience in the industry, but some of his high school friends worked at fast-food restaurants during the summer.

“It’s different when you’re a kid and you are working there. What, you get minimum wage and maybe free food? To most teenagers that sounds like a good deal, and it is,” he said. “But when you’re an adult and you are working as hard as you can to support a family, it is a lot different.”

And that’s Twarog’s main problem with the fast-food industry. Without unions, she said, fast-food workers will never acquire the amount of money they would need to support a family. But Twarog has a solution to that.

“You could make a burger or happy meal cost 20 more cents and add that on to people’s salaries. Companies should pass the price on to the consumer, but companies think that it will somehow destroy the price balance, and people will never buy these burgers again,” she said. “In reality, most people would not even notice the price change — I know I wouldn’t.”

Twarog said most employees think if they go talk to their managers about a pay raise, they will get turned down or fired, but that’s not always the case.

She said employees are entitled to the Wagner Act of 1935, which made it illegal for employers to fire employees for banding together to demand workplace improvements.

“Employers don’t want people to know about this,” Twarog said. “Employees need to understand that they’re not the first people to want increased wages.”

However, Twarog still has a love for the industry.

“I miss the food service industry,” she said. “Whenever I have a doubt about my career, I have my restaurant plan ready to go on my computer — menu and everything.”

Carter on the other hand feels a tad bit different about the fast-food industry.

“It gets you by; it takes care of the bills for the time being, but keeping it as something forever? No. I won’t miss it at all.”

Andrew can be reached at [email protected].