Posted on 08/29/2013 9:15:48 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Fast-food workers in more than 50 cities Thursday are striking for fair pay and the right to form a union — the biggest walkout to hit the industry.
What can we do to address this low-wage jobs crisis? Exerting pressure on the fast-food and retail giants that rake in billions in profits is a good starting point. These companies can afford to share more of their wealth with their frontline workers and should be doing so.
Boosting wages for America’s lowest-paid workers is a crucial step toward reducing economic inequality and rebuilding a strong economy. Perhaps 50 years from now, we’ll look back on the fast-food workers’ fight as the catalyst we so desperately needed.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
If they would have stayed in school, not gotten pregnant by thier loser boyfriend who is out getting others pregnant, they wouldnt have to rely on a 7 dollar an hr job. And this is our fault!
Job? Just go on welfare.
Nope, no bias here. Just a plain ole American speaking her mind about what’s fair. No matter she is the Executive Director for the National Employment Law Project, a economic subversive institution supported by every kook foundation, United Way, AARP, AFL-CIO, SEIU and former American Communists in the book...
That have a 2012 Annual Report at their website [nelp.org] ....biggest bunch of crybaby crap I’ve ever seen. They have no understanding about economics or work equity.
BTW, as a 501 c3, you’d think that their annual report would have numbers about what they got and what they spent. But it does not.
Yep. According to the article more than three-quarters of all jobs pay enough to support a family of four above the poverty level.
It also lowers their wages significantly because they’ll lose food stamp and Medicaid benefits.
ping
If you have a fast food job, don’t start a family. Simple.
I am speechless aside from “Christine, you ignorant slut.”
Let's say you go into business for yourself, and from modest beginnings, you start to make a lot more money. You're your only employee, but your one-person business (whatever it is) is such a success, you realize you need a little help with the paperwork....or the computer work. So you hire a person to help you.
After a while, your sole employee figures out how much money you're making, and demands a raise. You've probably been paying this person more than the minimum wage anyway, but this person wants a lot more money claiming you can afford it. But you protest saying what they do (glorified paper shuffler) is only deserving of so much pay. The person threatens to quit if you don't double his or her salary. What do you do? Well, if it were me, I'd explain things to my sole employee about their worth. If they kept up the protests, they'd be summarily fired.
Nobody is twisting these peoples' arms to make them work at fast food places. If they want more money, they better be able to expand their skills and have something other employees will value. Otherwise, they'd should be content to have a low-skilled job.
McDonalds jobs have never in the past been for a person raising a family
Now with Obama and no other jobs available they have become an emergency source of revenue while looking for a decent job.
And still we have people who would vote for this Community organizer another time.
Even if fast food workers got their raises and their union, it wouldn’t help them. Because a chunk of their meager earnings would go for union dues. They’d be buying mansions for fat union parasites while they continue to remain low-wage proles in dead-end jobs.
Entry level means just that. This country is so screwed up that it’s hard to even address this nonsense.
Just another case of fiscal insanity at work. Every time you raise a “minimum wage” you lose jobs and cause “cost push” inflation. And the false argument about McDonald’s making huge profits is lame. Sure McDonald’s makes big bucks, but only by getting a small portion of each sale by an individual franchise. And what about the individual franchise owner? Is he making big bucks? I knew one of the early franchise owners from the early 60’s when McDonald’s (and fast food in general) was new. With a basic “monopoly” at the time, the husband and wife managed to make a high 5 figure income. But for that, they risked losing everything accumulated over 35 years of working for others to purchase the franchise, went further into debt, and each put in 80 hour weeks with no vacations. Yes, eventually things improved after their second location was established, but it is a typical risk-reward scenario. And what about the working model for the business? With the exception of management, these jobs are designed to be entry level jobs to give youngsters work experience and pocket change. The fact that someone wants to make these jobs “careers” speaks volumes about our economy. Want these positions to be careers - institute 20% taxes and subsidize them. Then we’ll destroy personal incentive and eventually be known as the “united States of Socialism”.
“One demand of the 1963 marchers was raising the federal minimum wage to $2 an hour. In today’s dollars, that’s roughly $15 an hour — what the striking fast-food workers are now calling for.”
Seven years ago, my company took 10% from my pay rate. It has never been returned, as promised. No increases, no COLA’s, and no job if I don’t like it.
30 years in the same profession, and living on what I made in the 70’s. Businesses and corporations are going to get even more cutthroat and demanding for more at the same wages, as the job pool continues to grow, and threats of termination keep everyone but the too foolish and too gifted in line.
As for a fast food joint being a “stepping-stone” job, that is no longer true. There is increasingly becoming no where to step “up” to in this economy, unless your sights are set on the corporate environment. Then backstabbing and scapegoating will be your constant companions for the extra money you’ll earn.
Would it kill someone to work 60 hours a week while putting yourself through school? Get 2 or 3 jobs and take some courses that will earn you a marketable skill or trade. It used to be called getting ahead. It takes effort. My first summer job in high school, I worked 58 hours a week and still had plenty of time to screw around.
You can't raise a family even on a full time job at McDonalds...In fact, a single person would be lucky to pay for simple basic things like food, rent, utilities and gasoline to get to work.
Those who work at these places can forget bare bone basic things like groceries, insurance, clothing, medical expenses, car payments etc, etc....Same with retail, warehousing, and the entire service industry.
Regardless of where you're at on this debate, it's become a luxury in America for many just to pay for bare necessities such as rent, gas, food and utilities.
Compound this by millions getting their hours slashed under 30 hrs per week so the fat corps can avoid providing benefits etc...
It's a meat grinder...
It's why for example big dollar industries like housing and big pharma nose totally dive in the next two decades...Bet the rent.
Ya see all these millions of American will not have those top shelf medical benefits their parents had, where they're medical benefits paid for all these high end medications to keep them alive...
Not going to happen for the generations coming up right now...
Simply buying a home in the not too distant future will be a total luxury for young adults today...
What they ignore is that McDonald's and Yum! don't own the individual outlets. They're owned by small business men and women who are not raking in million dollar salaries. Those are the ones who will have to foot the salary increases.
It is sad to realize that this author, and so many other supposedly intelligent people, are arguing that the “skills” needed to flip a burger are great enough that doing so for 40 hour a week should be enough to feed/clothe/house an entire family.
They seem to have no concept of “value”. They probably think a steak should cost the same as a hamburger too, because it is unfair that poor people don’t get to eat steak and lobster.
It is fast food. If you charge enough that it costs as much as a good meal, people will probably just cook their own frozen burgers and fries at home. Or they’ll go to a nicer restaurant, and get real food.
I want to meet some of these people, and ask them if they’d pay me $15 if I carried their books for them for an hour. When they say “of course not, it’s not worth it”, I’d respond — neither is it worth it to me to pay you $15 an hour to push buttons and say “good day” to me.
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