People have bought into the idea that certain jobs are just bad and therefore only bad workers take them. They then like to imagine that the jobs are OK, as long as they are done by children who will go on to better things.

Never mind the fact that these people rely on those workers to feed them even during the school day (and the jobs are usually bad because one is forced to deal with people who look down on you).

It’s a round about way to counteract the obvious question that comes after these kinds of articles (Isn’t even $20/hr only $40k/year full-time?)

It's just a thing you say to elevate yourself over a hypothetical other because that's something you have a need to do. It's just words to make someone feel good, I wouldn't take it literally.