Photo via @sbagley/Twitter, @tejpalsinghtv/TikTok
February 21, 2022, 2:54 pm
You may have seen a viral Twitter post in recent weeks by a Westminster College professor complaining that he makes less than what a sign for Panda Express was advertising as pay for their general managers, inadvertently launching a debate about who said professor should be complaining to. Professor Spencer Bagley, who now has his Twitter account set to private and seems to clearly regret posting, said in the tweet that his associate professor of mathematics salary is just $61,500, while the advertised general manager salary was $69,000.
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Now, a TikTok video is going viral for tearing into Bagley, echoing calls of elitism for appearing to attack fast food managers rather than the college that is currently underpaying him for his work and perhaps implying that one kind of labor is worth more than another.
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“For a college professor, you’re pretty stupid,” says TikTok user Tejpal Singh. “You’re really mad at Panda Express for paying their employees more? Instead of getting mad at your college that you don’t get paid more. You’re an idiot. How are you so hollow in the head for being a college professor? How did you get that job?”
In a follow-up tweet, Bagley did say that he only meant to say that professors are underpaid, but in a society where working in fast food or other service positions is routinely devalued and derided as somehow being work for bad and lazy people, this was lost in his original post. Many also pointed out that “associate” implies that he works and entry-level professor job, whereas a fast food general manager has had to climb through the ranks. Entry-level Panda Express employees probably make minimum wage or something not much more than that.
Pro-worker folks have pointed out time and time again to people complaining that their pay is close to that of a worker in a highly undervalued job that said people should instead organize to raise their own salaries rather than implying that service workers deserve less than them.
Many college professors and other instructors are definitely underpaid in the U.S., along with other educators, and these workers have organized numerous strikes and other actions alongside their students to demand better pay and benefits. Fast food workers have increasingly been doing the same, unionizing at rates not seen in this country for decades. Those on the political left would largely prefer to see more of this and less of workers attacking one another, which only benefits the capitalists.
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That, and if you think about it, Panda Express may actually be doing less damage to their customers than U.S. colleges.
“Panda Express will not give me food poisoning, but college will destroy my life with student loans,” pointed out one TikTok commenter.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Bagley got meme’d hard. This is probably going to reflect in his Rate My Professor comments for some time.
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*First Published: February 21, 2022, 2:54 pm
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