Having lived in Greece for all of my life, and being friends with first and second year college students makes me even more motivated and eager to take a closer look and talk about the low wage life students experience. I always heard from people I know that they weren’t getting paid enough and that they are trying to find a better job. They would always hate on their boss and on the whole system. Greek students would hope they live 10 maybe 20 years ago, when almost all students were working along side their studies. They now just waste endless hours in front of the newspapers and on the Internet, trying to find a job that is not at low wage. Many people don’t think about how hard it can be to try to work for low wages in order to support your academic life. The majority of students work in cafeterias, bars, restaurants and taverns. Almost all of them work during the summer full time in some island bar and part time during the rest of the year while attending college. Why waiters? Because there are many places that serve people in Greece as it is a very touristic country. However, from what we have read from Barbara Ehrenreich’s test, waiters on low wages don’t have the best working experiences. In Greece, unskilled workers, and in this case student waiters get paid anywhere between 25 and 40 Euros per day, and that is for full time employment. Students who usually work part time earn a lot less money. But how much more do they expect to earn when unemployment is at 45% between the ages of 18 and 40? In this project, I will try to look at the low wage life of Greek students working as waiters.
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