Again: If you normally go there, don’t boycott unless it’s related to a job action by the employees, because these folks really need these jobs. But do make a point of telling the manager, “I avoid coming here because you don’t pay a living wage. It makes me feel bad when I spend my money here.”
McDonald’s McResource Line, a dedicated website run by the world’s largest fast-food chain to provide its 1.8 million employees with financial and health-related tips, offers a full page of advice for “Digging Out From Holiday Debt.” Among their helpful holiday tips: “Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.”
Elsewhere on the site, McDonald’s encourages its employees to break apart food when they eat meals, as “breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full.” And if they are struggling to stock their shelves with food in the first place, the company offers assistance for workers applying for food stamps.
McDonald’s corporate officers have a history of offering questionable advice to their low-wage workers. Four months ago, the company partnered with Visa to distribute a sample “budget.” In it, the chain suggested that workers needn’t pay for such frivolous expenses like their heating bills, and factored in a monthly rent of $600. To workers living in New York City (home of 350+ stores) and other expensive metropolises, that number is almost comical.
McDonald’s employees are some of the most underpaid workers in the country. The company’s cashiers and “team members” earn, on average, $7.75 an hour, just 50 cents higher than the federal minimum wage. Responding to rising living costs, many stores have staged walk-outs, strikes and protests, demanding a living wage. In Europe, where the minimum wage for employees is $12, customers pay just pennies more than their American counterparts for the same menu items, while the stores themselves typically bring in higher profit margins than ones in the United States.
Of course, McDonalds has shown little willingness to negotiate higher salaries for their poorest workers even as labor rights groups up the pressure. Instead, their website has another piece of advice for people who are stressed about their meager paychecks: “Quit complaining,” the site suggests. “Stress hormones levels rise by 15% after 10 minutes of complaining.”
Stress hormones rise 100% if they are not vented.
Boycott is all we’ve got. “Our” elected reps will do squat about this. The minimum wage issue is something Dems leave hanging around election time to create an issue. They rarely deliver. It’s not a hardship to drive by McD. Lots of equally poor product and pay just down the street. When McD is forced to buy ads that lie about pay, benefits and opportunity like Walmart we’re getting their attention. In a high volume, low margin business, boycott can be effective.
McDonalds Meh!
The company’s cashiers and “team members” earn, on average, $7.75 an hour, just 50 cents higher than the federal minimum wage.
The principle of a flat federal minimum wage is badly flawed.
It penalizes urban workers and those in high cost-of-living locations.
To serve its purpose properly, the federal minimum wage needs to be indexed to the local cost of living. $7.25 an hour may allow someone to squeak by in Cedar Rapids or some town on the Interstate in Wyoming, but it certainly is too low for New York, San Francisco, Boston, or Honolulu.
Oh wait — how do people usually vote in those last four places? Maybe the 1% approves of this gap. It penalizes the people who are unlikely to vote their way, without hurting the ones who supply their elected surrogates with votes.
San Jose has enacted a $10/hour minimum wage, and Sea-Tac WA, where Seattle’s airport is located, just voted in a $15/hour minimum. Now the feds need to fix things on their end.