Teens fired by Legends pizza shop invited to speak at Democratic National Convention

Jensen Walcott and Jake Reed, the Bonner Springs high school students who became heroes for equal pay after being fired from a pizza shop for discussing their wages, will speak at the Democratic National Convention on the same night as Hillary Clinton.

Clinton’s campaign released a list of “everyday Americans” who will take the stage at the convention in Philadelphia next week. Walcott and Reed accepted an invitation to speak on Thursday, July 28, the convention’s final night.

Walcott and and Reed, who are friends, were hired at Pizza Studio at Legends Outlets on the same day. When they discussed their new jobs, Walcott learned that Reed was going to make $8.25 hour, whereas she had been hired at $8 per hour. Walcott called the store and asked about the discrepancy. After being put on hold, she was told she was fired. Reed was also notified that he had lost his job.

The story, first reported by WDAF-TV, went national. Clinton’s Twitter account linked to an article about the students’ plight, along with a message from the presidential candidate herself. “Good for you, Jensen,” the message, signed “-H,” said. “Every woman deserves equal pay, no matter what her age. Keep up the hard work—and courage!”

The pizza chain apologized to Walcott and Reed and said the discrepancy in pay was not a result of gender bias but rather “a failure to assign the correct salary and a misunderstanding of our company policies by one of our employees.”