The minimum wage debate has been in the headlines all over the U.S. recently, with campaigns in many states to raise the wage to $15 an hour.
Some of those who oppose raising the wage argue that those who work minimum wage jobs, like fast-food workers, don't deserve a higher wage for the work they do.
But amid the debate, a paramedic from Texas has offered a unique perspective.
Jens Rushing is going viral on Facebook for a post in which he explains he makes $15 a hour for his job saving lives, but thinks its admirable if fast-food workers fight to earn the same.
He wrote in part:
Look, if any job is going to take up someone's life, it deserves a living wage. If a job exists and you have to hire someone to do it, they deserve a living wage. End of story. There's a lot of talk going around my workplace along the lines of, "These guys with no education and no skills think they deserve as much as us? Fuck those guys." And elsewhere on FB: "I'm a licensed electrician, I make $13/hr, fuck these burger flippers."
And that's exactly what the bosses want! They want us fighting over who has the bigger pile of crumbs so we don't realize they made off with almost the whole damn cake. Why are you angry about fast food workers making two bucks more an hour when your CEO makes four hundred TIMES what you do? It's in the bosses' interests to keep your anger directed downward, at the poor people who are just trying to get by, like you, rather than at the rich assholes who consume almost everything we produce and give next to nothing for it.
His post got over 30,000 shares, with many people saying he was spot on.
Other people said they were shocked at what paramedics made in Texas.
Rushing wrote that he could make slightly more at a different service, but chose his because it's more flexible in letting him finish his schoolwork to get his nursing degree.
The paramedic told BuzzFeed News he just wrote the post for his co-workers, and never expected the attention.
He said it has been "humbling" to read all of the messages of support he has received, including many from fellow EMS workers.
"I'm glad that I could articulate this in such a way that it resonates with others, and I hope it gives others rhetorical tools to use in their own conversations and debates, and that it encourages others to work for the dignity and security that all workers deserve," he said.