What is the worth of a worker?

In the city of Boston, how much does it truly cost to keep each industry running?

In her editorial piece ‘Off the Menu’ by Kathleen Kingsbury, the author did not employ extreme figurative language, rather she let the dramatic and shocking data and quotes speak for themselves. Though the article focuses on a restaurant in Boston, this is a national issue that all states face.

The story begins by focusing on a specific restaurant and interviewing a worker, and as the article develops it opens to injustices that are being committed across the country. This editorial is part of series that looks into the criminality and human trafficking of the restaurant industry.

To further emphasis the extremity of the situation, the author would use a detailed sentence followed by a short sentence to punctuate the dilemma. An example would be, “Cooking often meant reheating days-old food for the buffet, including, once, seafood that the kitchen staff was asked to pick out of the trash. When workers complained, they were fired.”

Kingsbury also uses statistics and numbers to bring legitimacy to her reporting. She cites specific laws that restaurants continuously fail to comply to, “staff made far below Massachusetts’ minimum wage of $8.”

 

Another editorial piece that tries to unearth unethical behavior is ‘Hard-charging workforce requires a 24-hour city’ By Dante Ramos.  The author employs slightly more figurative and detailed language than the first author, in order to help the reader feel immersed in the setting.

The author goes into deep detail to explore both sides of the issue: whether there is truly a need for business to stay open continuously. By presenting both sides of the issue at the beginning of the article, a reader not from the area is already being pulled into the happenings of Boston business nights.

Ramos sums up the issue by stating, “in a 24-hour economy, a dismissive civic attitude toward late-night commerce looks less like a quality-of-life choice than an economic hindrance.”

Throughout the article the author shifts the argument o a bigger scale issue, “Is Boston flexible enough to accommodate residents with out-of-the-ordinary needs?”

The article expands and talks about all cities across America, but specifically this is a state issue for Massachusetts.