Panda Express Hiring Sign Goes Viral: 'Go Hug a Local Educator'

A teacher at a college in Utah who compared his salary with that of the going rate for staff at a fast food outlet has sparked a lively discussion on social media about the pay offered in the hospitality and education sectors.

Many responded to a tweet by Spencer Bagley of an image of a sign advertising for staff at fast food chain Panda Express. Titled "Inspiring better lives" the job ad called for general managers, assistant managers and service and kitchen team members.

For the general manager role, the sign listed that the "total potential annual compensation or earnings" at the restaurant would be $69,000 a year, plus a bonus.

The other posts advertised a going rate of between $15 and $20 an hour. Pay for the assistant manager salary role also includes bonuses. The ad also said that it offered other benefits including medical and dental insurance, paid sick leave and vacations and "401 (k) with company match."

Bagley tweeted on Friday: "My salary as an associate professor of mathematics at Westminster College, three blocks away from this sign, is $61,500."

For the upcoming fall semester, the college Bagley works at in Salt Lake City charges students $19,916, according to its website. The average annual pay for an assistant professor in the U.S. is $78,781, according to salaryexpert.com.

In a follow-up message, Bagley wrote: "I promise that this tweet is not elitist, but anyway, I'm muting because my mentions are now unusable. Go hug a local educator."

"The point of the tweet is that professors make way less than you think they do. That's all," wrote Bagley, whose university profile said he obtained a Ph.D. at San Diego State University.

As of Saturday morning, his message about academic pay was trending and was liked more than 17,000 times and garnered 2,100 retweets, sparking considerable debate.

"Restaurant manager is a tougher job than college professor," tweeted user Meka who said that a restaurant manager is "a more dangerous job than college professor," and that "having more access to, and ability for, academics, does not entitle any of us to a higher salary."

Mike Edmonson tweeted: "You underestimate the work that goes into running a 7 day a week/ > 12 hr a day restaurant which relies on entry level workers to show up every day...why don't you try it for a year?"

However, Bagley also got sympathy, with one user tweeting that his salary is "probably less than that when you figure in the hours actually put into each day. It's a travesty that educators aren't paid more."

Another wrote: "You're right, you guys deserve a higher pay. So get mad at the heads of your universities, raise hell for them, don't get mad at service workers also making a good wage that they deserve too."

Employers across the country, especially in food service, have complained that it is tough to find and maintain staff.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of people who quit the sector rose from 4.8 percent to 6.9 percent over the past year, which was more than any other industry.

Newsweek has contacted Panda Express and Westminster College for comment.