Turns out Taco Bell employees don’t make $16 an hour in Fort Worth, Texas.

Roger Zaczyk, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers at GE Transportation, said he assumed as much when he made a comment comparing workers at the fast food chain with those being hired at a new GE Transportation plant in Fort Worth.

Zaczyk said his remarks were intended to be humorous, but also to make a point about the lower pay scale in Fort Worth, where workers will make $10 an hour or less than their counterparts in Lawrence Park.

“It isn’t like a career wage. Down there in Fort Worth, people at Taco Bell make that kind of money,” Zaczyk said in comments that appeared in Monday’s newspaper and on GoErie.com.

An employee at the Taco Bell on Weatherford Street in Fort Worth said that’s not the case.

Starting pay at Taco Bell is $7.25 an hour, he said.
Zaczyk said he assumed most people would understand he was trying to use humor to make a point.

But not everyone saw it that way. He said a number of people have called him with questions about his statement.