ESSAY 2

The topic I will probably write about for my hypertext essay #2 is working at the movie theaters. I have never worked at the movie theaters but I do know some people who have worked there so I could set up an interview with them to get a better feeling of what it's like to work there. I really wished I could have picked a topic that relates to me directly, but the only low wage job I’ve work at is at my aunt's work place as a student worker. I found that that topic is a little too hard to research and develop. Through my own observations, I have noticed that teens practically run, own and operate movie theaters. I found this similar to how teens run and operate fast food restaurants (schlosser, 67-68).
I have also noticed that many of these laborers are unskilled and perhaps uneducated. I could talk about one scenario in my hometown where a girl with Down syndrome works. She’s been there for a long time now. This could be seen as a positive for the movie theater reputation because they are providing handicapped people some means of work. This is another topic "fast food nation" talks about (schlosser, 68, 70-71).
I am also going to talk about the benefits one gets for working at the movie theaters and if it’s worth it or not. This topic will eventually lead to wage and the question, where does all the movie theater money go? In “Nickel and Dimed” Ehrenreich says that the maid company gets $25 per person-hour while the workers only get $6.65 (72). This is similar to the movie theater scenario, because the movie theater charges almost $10 for tickets and a lot of money for food, but only pay there workers a small amount of that. I’m going to research statistics such as percent of teens working at movie theaters versus adults, I’m going to look up the different positions and the pay they earn and I’m going to try to get other’s experience on the matter. I know that the wage these workers earn are definitely not fair considering the amount of work they have to do, cleaning the theaters after each showing, and serving costumers, which can get very hectic. Another idea that is in “fast food nation” is that workers are sent home when the work flow is low to keep from paying workers more than they need (74). This is the same for movie theater workers. Hopefully I can get enough information to make a good hypertext essay.