"Unskilled labor" is a bullshit dogwhistle to justify not paying workers a living wage or ensuring good work conditions.

The term "unskilled labor" is used to imply that a worker doesn't have a skillset that is valuable, and therefore should be paid shit. The thing is, a lot of "unskilled" jobs are actually really difficult, both physically and mentally, and require acclimation and toughing yourself out to. Creating a good restaurant experience for customers takes a lot of skill in communicating effectively with customers and coworkers, working well under pressure, and managing your time correctly to ensure that customers get their orders out quickly and correctly. This is a valuable skillset that not many people can handle, and it takes time to learn how to do it well. People who call fast food workers unskilled in some sort of derisive manner are really just implying that they should be paid poorly and treated poorly because they think the job is easy (which, spoiler alert: it is not). The term "unskilled labor" is used as a dog whistle to justify underpaying workers because they don't deserve it.