What Taco Bell’s $100,000 Salary Offer Says About U.S. Jobs
- After stagnant years, restaurants throw cash at workers
- Chain’s experiment might show steppingstone to middle class
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Who makes $100,000 a year? According to the U.S. government, air traffic controllers do. The academics who teach architects to design buildings that won’t collapse. And maybe soon, the guy who makes your Triple Layer Nachos some bleary midnight.
Taco Bell’s announcement of a pilot program to raise manager pay to white-collar levels could presage a middle-class life for workers who have struggled in a winner-take-all economy. For Alex Torres, who grinds away as a $15.50-an-hour Taco Bell shift supervisor in Chicago, that salary -- roughly triple his current take -- could mean fulfilling a dream of seeing Rome.