The Truth About Working At Popeyes Revealed By Workers

The Popeyes chicken sandwich became one of the biggest food stories of 2019. 

This Louisiana-based chicken chain was a fast food staple long before they challenged Chick-fil-A's sandwich throne, though. In 1972, Alvin Copeland began serving his Cajun-flavored chicken in a New Orleans suburb and four years later he opened the first Popeyes restaurant.

There's no telling how many people Popeyes has employed in its 2,700 plus restaurants over the decades, but the brand has never been more popular. All the buzz around Popeyes' chicken sandwich has also resulted in the spotlight being directed on the the employees who keep Popeyes afloat and serve that delicious sandwich. 

Working in fast food can be tough work, and Popeyes employees are on their feet for hours at a time while they work to serve a hungry and sometimes impatient public. Often for only minimum wage or a few bucks more. 

The employees of this popular chicken chain have recently witnessed customer fights, and themselves been the target of threats from customers. It's not all chicken chaos though. The job does provide a stepping stone to customer service, and some restaurant employees have even found themselves climbing the corporate ranks. 

Straight from the employees of Popeyes, here's what it's like to work for one of the biggest names in fast food chicken.

The low pay for fast food employees has been a hot topic of debate for years, and Popeyes isn't an exception when it comes to the wages its employees earn. According to Indeed, the average hourly wage for a Popeyes crew member is about $9.50 an hour. That may be a little more than two bucks extra than the United States federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, but many employees still feel it's hardly equal to the work of the job. 

Fran Marion, a Popeyes employee in Kansas City, Missouri who is a single mother of two children told The Guardian that despite working six days a week and a second job, she struggles to provide for her family. "It makes me feel like a peasant," Marion said. "In a way it's slavery. It's economic slavery." 

Popeyes managers do earn a little more at an average of $12.93 an hour, but even working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, that's not even an annual salary of $26,000. 

According to Popeyes' website, the company does off certain benefits such as education assistance, a 401(k), and "cash awards on your employment anniversary." Who knows how many of Popeyes' fast food employees are actually getting these benefits, and despite the company having a score of 2.8 out of five on Indeed in the pay category, it has an overall score of 3.5 stars out of five.

With the long hours, low pay, and occasionally rude customer, it doesn't come as a surprise that some Popeyes employees quit on the spot. People can only be pushed so far in a job before they reach the breaking point, and the chicken sandwich madness has ushered in that breaking point for numerous Popeyes employees. 

"Everyone wanted to quit so bad because it was that bad," one Popeyes crew member in Orange County, California told Business Insider.  "We have never seen it get this insanely busy." Another employee at a New Jersey restaurant said that she abruptly quit right in the middle of putting together two sandwiches for customers. 

Manager Wanda Lavender told Vox that she too has had employees quit on the spot because the job just became too stressful to handle. "It was too much," Lavendar said before adding "It's overwhelming."

While some Popeyes employees may decide to take their chances and look for another job, quitting isn't an option for others such as Lavender, who has six children to care for. "I'm not doing this just for kicks."

The fast food industry has a high turnover rate — like, ridiculously high. 

According to CNBC, turnover in the restaurant industry is around 130 percent a year, largely because fast food jobs aren't particularly desirable for many of the reasons outlined above. But not all of those workers are quitting.

Always showing up late or simply not doing the required work will get a person fired in any job, but Popeyes employees have been fired for a whole range of reasons. In 2015, a Popeyes worker claimed they were fired after refusing to pay back money that was stolen during an armed robbery. In August 2019, Popeyes canned employees for putting too much cayenne pepper in the store's chicken sandwiches. 

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising example of Popeyes employees getting the ax came from a former restaurant manager on Reddit. According to the manager, several months after the Popeyes restaurant opened, a regional supervisor told him "Tomorrow an RV will be parked in the parking lot when you arrive. Send each employee out to take a polygraph before they clock in. Tell them, 'We're not looking for food theft. If you gave away food or ate food without paying for it just admit it so you don't get tagged as deceptive. We're looking for somebody who stole money.'"

The Popeyes manager said they suspected a real polygraph wasn't used, but regardless, half the store's employees were fired because of the ruse.

According to Forbes, when Popeyes chicken sandwich returned in November of 2019, Popeyes' traffic was 300 percent above normal and even higher than when the sandwich initially launched. What's good for Popeyes as a whole, however, hasn't necessarily trickled down to the employees making the sandwich. 

"The corporation made all this money — millions — off of these sandwiches, but where's our cut? Where is our appreciation? Where is our thank-you? We made 5,000 sandwiches just in Wisconsin and sold every single one of them," Popeyes employee Wanda Lavender said.  

Fran Marion, who was working at Popeyes before the chicken sandwich came along, grosses around $950 for Popeyes taking orders in a seven-hour shift, but only takes home $76 (via The Guardian). Marion feels that Popeyes should pay its crew members a higher wage. "It's united we stand or divided we fall," Marion said. 

When asked by Business Insider about the overworked fast food employees, Popeyes CEO Jose Cil said it was a "tough week" for crew members around the country and said the sandwich's success was "driven by our franchise partners as well as our team members."

While that may be a verbal pat on the back, Popeyes workers would likely prefer a monetary one. "The added demand increased the amount of work tenfold, while I still get paid next to nothing," confessed one employee.

Despite the long hours, lower wages, and potentially hostile customers, a lot of Popeyes workers take great pride in their work and some enjoy the job. One Popeyes employee on Quora said that they enjoyed numerous aspects of the job, from the crew member camaraderie to the customer interactions, fast pace of the work, and even the cleaning once the store was shut down. 

"Even though it's not a professional job, it is quite interesting to work at a Popeyes," the employee said, adding "Especially since it's my first job."

Other Popeyes employees expressed a similar satisfaction with the job and said that it provided them with a chance to serve people in their community. "Great opportunity to get a chance to work with the general working population and gain pointers on customer service," former employee Denise Davis said. 

While a lot of employees on Indeed did say that the work could be tiring for their small paycheck, numerous employees agreed that their coworkers made all the difference. "My coworkers where my biggest joy throughout my time at Popeyes, one employee said. "We created a bond like family and looked out for one another day after day."

Working at Popeyes may not be the perfect job, but it can certainly be a decent place to start if you need a steady paycheck and want some customer service experience.