Working retail already means braving impatient customers and impossible expectations.

But when one store dared to offer new hires an extra dollar above minimum wage, it somehow unleashed a wave of outrage from people who thought employees didn’t “deserve” it.

Read on for the full story.

You don’t deserve $11 an hour!

So recently our store started hiring, as we are always understaffed.

In order to attract job seekers, they recently posted a hiring sign mentioning that they were hiring starting at $11.00/hr, which is a whopping $1 above the state-mandated minimum wage.

Even the “nice” customers had some pretty surprising reactions to this.

1:
Lady is perfectly nice, has a normal and very polite interaction. In fact, she’s more cheerful and polite than my average customer.

As she walks out, she sees the sign, turns, and screeches at me:

L: “Does that sign say $11 an hour?!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, it does.”

L: “You don’t deserve $11!”

One woman couldn’t help but compare things to the past.

2:
Woman I’m ringing out has already noticed the signs…

W: “When I was your age, minimum wage was so much lower! The job hasn’t changed at all. You’re so lucky you get paid so much nowadays. When I was your age, I made practically no money!”

Me: “…”

Another man is outright hostile the entire interaction.

3:
Checking out a man who has been rude and impatient the entire time. Prices have changed recently (at the time of this story).

Man: “Why is it so expensive? Usually this costs $x.yz, but today it costs $a.bc. You did it wrong.”

Me: “It seems we had a slight price increase, I’m really sorry, sir!”

Man: “Well, I bet if it weren’t for stupid kids like you getting paid $11 an hour, they wouldn’t have increased! You stupid workers think you deserve $15 for flipping burgers — it’s so easy anyone could do it! It’s not like you need the money anyway, you should feel ashamed of yourself!”

Seems like these customers don’t think of retail workers super highly..

What did Reddit think?

These concepts really shouldn’t be that hard to wrap your head around.

These rude customers often have miserable lives and try to drag others down with them.

“When I was your age, I practically made no money!” “Well that was a long time ago, sir,”

Some people just don’t seem to care about anyone else but themselves.

Some customers really need to realize that paying workers fairly isn’t the end of the world.

These poor retail workers were just trying to make a living, not start an economic debate.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.