Heck, washing dishes was my first high school job in California. I'll never forget getting my first paycheck, to find that something called "FICA" took a good percentage away. I became an instant Republican.
I've been back to the kitchen in that Restaurant. No more high school kids, only Mexicans.
Somehow, Californians managed fairly well without the recent influx.
Roll forward to 2000. My son WANTED to work at Burger King or McDonald's or just about any fast food restaurant to earn money for the same reasons I earned money at his age. No way. The Mexicans CONTROLLED the kitchen and hiring decisions. The only way he broke through their stranglehold on the restaurant jobs was to prove he could speak Spanish as good as any latino on the staff.
My son gets the last laugh. He is now a licensed real estate agent in San Diego. He works for a naturalized citizen from Mexico City. He conducts his real estate transactions in Spanish from beginning to end. He graduated with a 4.33 GPA and enough AP credits to be a college sophomore on his high school graduation day. San Diego State Business School has admitted him to an international business degree program with specialization in Mexico. He already runs the real estate office except for the required signatures from his boss with the broker's license. He will be seeking his own broker's license in 18 months and will have a solid background in how to run a real estate business.
My son is also a LCPL in the USMC Reserves. He just earned the "Marine of the Quarter" award. That puts him in the running for promotion to CPL this quarter. He might yet get another tour in Iraq. Landing in Kuwait City on his 20th birthday was his "sun and sand" vacation gift from the USMC.
The Mexicans with the stranglehold on the fast food employment are still steadfastly working in the kitchen. They have neither the skills nor the ambition to do any better than that.