THE GREASE
TRAP
He believed KFC’s website,
which claimed that the company
helped workers go from “finger
lickin’ good to GREAT!” He believed his manager and boss, who
assured him that if things went
well, he’d get a promotion and a
raise and would eventually earn
an opportunity to take over his
own store. And he believed his
father and mother and grandmother and uncle and everyone
else who had ever told him that if
he worked hard and saved money,
he’d get ahead.
Then came the explosion of the
grease trap, a machine that separates grease from the drainage
that flows into the sewers. Grease
splattered all over the basement
floor and walls; a manager asked
Barrera to clean up the mess. Barrera agreed, figuring that he’d
prove himself worthy of a raise.
The company had recently promoted him to shift supervisor, adding
to his responsibilities. But Barrera
was still waiting for the extra pay
“He offered $7.25. I saw
a look on his face, like,
if I kept asking for $9,
there wasn’t going
to be a job for me.”
HUFFINGTON
05.12.13
that was supposed to come with
the new title. He spent two days
scrubbing down the basement
with ammonia and bleach, determined to show his boss that he deserved more what he was making.
But the raise never came.
Barrera is a wiry, restless
22-year-old who belongs to the
fastest-growing cohort of American workers — people who go to
work every day but earn so little
that the government classifies
them as poor. His experience at
KFC underscores a reality face