Costco worker says she gets paid $30 an hour ‘to draw smiley faces on receipts’

People on TikTok defended a Costco employee who received negative comments from others after saying that she makes almost $30 an hour “to draw smiley faces on receipts.”

Khaleah, who goes by @lilyleia on the platform, posted a stitched video of the Costco employee noting her hourly rate at the superstore.

Shoppers at Costco sometimes have their receipts checked by employees on exiting the store, and in some instances the worker will daub a smiley face on the receipt to show it has been checked.

After boasting of her pay rate and role, Khaleah then showed comments from people in the medical field who are “bitching because they make the same amount.”

Commentary about the hourly rate of pay. Photo courtesy of @lilyleia/TikTok

“What’s crazy to me is that this happened so often where people in certain fields think that they should be making way more than people working in easier jobs like retail or food service or whatever,” Khaleah said.

“They always bitch about how those people should be making less instead of how they should be making more.”

She further notes that those who feel that the equivalent pay is “unfair” should really be disgruntled with their “employer” instead of another “working-class person”.

People in the video comments agreed with her defence.

“Medical field workers have huge egos and put down service workers and retail workers a lot,” they wrote.

Another added: “DUDE, RIGHT. Like you really think $30 an hour is acceptable for saving lives is acceptable? Blame YOUR employers, not theirs,” they wrote.

A third suggested that the mentality of some workers to “capitalism” and wrote: “Capitalism has successfully brainwashed them into attacking their fellow citizen instead of their corrupt employers.”

Others still aren’t convinced that people in retail jobs should be paid the same amount as a medical professional, with one writing: “The thing is, the healthcare workers go to school and have a degree that they paid for or some did loans. That’s why they think it’s unfair.”

According to the US State Department of Labor, employers who are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must pay their employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

At least a dozen states offer $7.25 an hour as the baseline pay, while other states are just short of $15 an hour.