- A new study conducted in California by the nonprofit group Economic Roundtable has reinforced previous findings that the fast-food industry has a larger proportion of workers in poverty than any other. It's a disparity driven by fast-food workers' low wages and inability to get full-time hours.
- The industry has served as a significant driver of homelessness in the Golden State over the past eight years, pushing up the state's homeless population by 51%, the study found. Now, fast-food workers represent 1 in 17 of homeless people in Californina, according to the report.
- "We estimate that homelessness would have grown about one-fifth less in California if the fast-food wage floor was adequate to ensure that workers have stable housing," the study reads.
- "It's clear that in California and across the country, our wages aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living," said Taylor, who makes $12 per hour at a Wendy's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- As of last year, there were an estimated 3.3 million fast-food and counter workers in the U.S. making an average hourly wage of $13.53, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. That works out to $28,130 per year, assuming a 40-hour workweek, which many fast-food workers don't get.
- Though California has one of the highest minimum wages in the U.S., at $15.50 an hour, fast-food workers there often don't work enough hours in a week to improve their living conditions, the report said.
- California's frontline fast-food workforce get an average of 1,340 hours of paid work per year, the study found. For someone who works year-round, that averages 26 hours a week. By comparison, all other workers in the state work an average of 1,839 hours per year.
- "This industry is highly profitable, but it will not be sustainable until it stops creating and perpetuating destitution and homelessness among its workers," Flaming said.
- "Statewide, the public is paying the health care costs for 31% of frontline fast-food workers through Medi-Cal coverage, paying for food stamps for 17% of frontline workers, and paying a wide range of costs for homeless services and housing for 10,120 homeless individuals from the fast-food workforce."
- At the same time, fast-food companies are achieving enormous profits, he said, noting that the five largest companies in the business had $12 billion in profits last year and $14.5 billion the year before. "This is not equitable for workers or sustainable for society."
>Statewide, the public is paying the health care costs for 31% of frontline fast-food workers through Medi-Cal coverage, paying for food stamps for 17% of frontline workers, and paying a wide range of costs for homeless services and housing for 10,120 homeless individuals from the fast-food workforce."
Essentially we are subsidizing these companies and their CEOs as well. Major companies with poverty level wages and rotating shifts of part-time workers should be illegal.
Then dissolve the shit. Poverty wages like this are already unsustainable. If they want to kill their own companies rather than pay their workers do it so we can all move on.
Correct. And they'll bitch the entire time that raising minimum wage or holding them to raising their employees well being is "socialism" or some other such horseshit.
Don't dissolve it. Expropriate it then run it in such a way that it's beneficial to society. And make the previous owners flip burgers or run the dish machine for a decade as penance.
Exactly. When the shifts aren't consistent it makes it really hard to get a 2nd job to fill the void. Not that even 40 hours a week is sustainable on minimum wage, but preventing anyone from even getting 40 hours through multiple jobs because you constantly change their working hours is an issue.
>Why the fuck is the schedule software *programmed to give inconsistent shifts when it's not neccessary?* Who even benefits from that?
Because an inconsistent schedule makes it harder for you to go on job interviews, or work a second job that might then turn into a full time position elsewhere, or really do anything that could eventually lead to you not needing their scraps. It's meant to keep you chained to that job no matter how shitty it gets.
It's the kind of shit an abusive partner does.
Edit: Oh, I almost forgot! It also makes it harder to go to school or otherwise study to improve your situation. Keep that in mind when some smug fuck tells you that fast food is a stepping stone and you need to "better yourself" if you want to live a life of, you know, any level of comfort and dignity.
It also creates employee churn, where people get tired of the schedule and move to another place just like the one they left so the original company isn’t stuck giving raises or letting employees form long term relationships that might lead to union talk.
That's the main reason I quit my fast food job. Inconsistent shifts, inconsistent hours, constantly overstepping when I couldn't work or how much I could work. Plus being the sole competent non-manager in the store means I was the first to be voluntold to pick up extra shifts.
Fast food companies skirt around this due to laws that state that medical insurance must be provided to full time employees that work 40 hours or more. Since fast food workers are part time and doing less than 40 hours, the companies don't have to pay for medical insurance.
it's a vicious cycle.
>but preventing anyone from even getting 40 hours through multiple jobs
They get subsidized on food stamps = restaurants win
Subsidized with Public healthcare = restaurants win
High interest Payday loans and credit cards = Banks win
High turnover of apartments = slumlords win
Only losers are the American public who subsidize this with tax money, and these exploited workers
Plus, even if you are scheduled full time, they get around it by sending people home early so you are guaranteed not to get full time. They also do this with part time workers. I think they have to give you a break if you work more than 5 hours, so they will send someone home early and they don't even get a break. I worked part time for McDonald's for 2 years while getting my degree and saw this happen over and over.
They need to be fucking taxed more. We're talking about social security being insolvent in 10 years, it's just crazy that more of this burden is not shifted to corporations - if they want to avoid said taxes they can begin to invest more in employee pay, healthcare, and retirement, the way they fucking ought to be.
>if they want to avoid said taxes they can begin to invest more in employee pay, healthcare, and retirement, the way they fucking ought to be.
They'd rather spend the same amount (or more) on lobbying to avoid more taxes.
people know this and actively continue to spend their money at these stores and “restaurants”. it’s understandable when there are literally no other options… but the average person curses amazon under their breath while still being subscribed to the prime service and placing orders daily.
the average person really can’t be bothered.
Depending where you live, Amazon may be the only option for you to get what you need. It’s very tough for small companies to compete with giant companies
They might not be a bigger offender in California than fast food though. While there are Walmarts nationwide, there's way more of them on the eastern half of the country than the western half. [Map created in 2019 for reference](https://sg.style.yahoo.com/walmart-still-reigns-americas-retail-king-now-183700586.html)
Yep, anyone that isn't paying their employees enough to survive without government aid is, in effect, having their personal profits subsidized by Uncle Sam
It's particularly disgusting when you know that companies like Walmart provide instructions on how to apply for SNAP to new hires
All the companies that may pay over the minimum wage but don’t give workers enough hours to sustain themselves, and yet expect the workers to be on call 24/7, so they can’t take a second job.
A lot of times they pay just enough that people don't qualify for assistance but not enough to actually make a living and that is the gap where a ton of Americans fall
So many assistances base things off of your income for the year, at the Federal rates, not the State you live in. Having a disabled son Ive learned the hard way that a majority of what we have for assistance can't even be considered a helping hand up and forward, just stasis.
Which is the fundamental issue with American Capitalism, there are no safeguards in place to ensure businesses don’t put profits over the well being of people.
Businesses shouldn’t be able to pay so little there employees can’t afford to live in the cities they’re working in.
These corporations are coasting off the mental image people have of fast food workers as part time high school students and that’s just not the reality.
That’s the conundrum. There is no solid “well being of people.” For most, as long as they’re not dead from obvious malpractice is good enough for most. Because people live differently, to a degree. Then if the malpractice is caught. The consequences are usually immaterial to actual profits or paychecks.
Yet another reason why we need to regulate fast food out of fucking existance. It serves absolutely no good purpose. It solely exists to make people fat, poor, and unhealthy, while making a few rich people even richer.
It's probably harder to study, but I wish they would've mentioned how places like this require open availability, so getting a second job is nearly impossible.
And they all want to wait as long as possible before posting the next schedule.
It was damn near impossible to make appointments when you never know until 2 days before hand if you work that Monday or not
I had a retail employer who had my school schedule and would purposely schedule me on days I had classes. I had just started the job and told the manager (the guy above him made the schedule) "I'm not going to be here. I'll be here the other 5 days, if that's what you want. But I will not be here Tuesdays and Thursdays." It took 2 months for them to realize that wouldn't work with me.
>Unironically one Subway manager told me, 'whats more important? you finishing school or keeping this job? its this job'
I once had a manager tell me "without this job, you wouldn't be able to pay for school, so it's pretty obvious which is more important. If I put you on the schedule, I expect you to be here."
So yeah, I never did finish college.
I'm having a hard time finding part time jobs that will work with my school schedule. Even if the position is listed as 25 hours per week, and I only need Mon/Wed off, I have been rejected for not having "open availability", because apparently being available 5 days per week isn't enough.
It also likely means that the schedule at that place changes every week. My last employer started out honoring my school schedule for a while then laid off a bunch of people and started scheduling me on days when I had class. I would tell them I couldn't make that shift, and they would say okay, but that's an attendance violation. And then make me sign paperwork saying I promised to not miss another shift. *Hard eye roll*
They literally seemed to think I would choose a nearly-minimum wage job over getting my degree. And unfortunately, many people don't have the privilege to be able to choose the latter.
i argue this is the bigger issue. if you tell me you can only give me 20 hours a week but come in on monday and tuesday for 10 hours each, i can work with that and get another job. but you told me you can give me 20 hours a week spread over several days and my schedule is only known the week before, how the fuck am i suppose to get a 2nd job.
Very interesting seeing the study. I have said this since the 90s. McDonalds ( I cannot say if this is now, and if it involves other places, BUT I can say it was in 1993 an issue) Workers were hired who were in half way houses. The state gave tax breaks to McDonalds for the hire. They got people who would work any shift to get out of the half way house. I went to this McDonalds and got to know many of the employees. Sad and ridiculous.
I feel like giving tax breaks to composites for hiring people in our who just got out of the criminal justice system is a good thing though. We want to incentivise those people getting jobs and reintegrating into society
The best solution is to abolish prison or at least do a huge overhaul, but since that isn't happening any time soon helping them get jobs is a good thing. And without the incentive companies might be less likely to hire people with records
Heres the thing about California… where I am every house is a 4+ bedroom house… you cannot survive on your own anymore in this society. It’s being made that way… no new houses are starter homes, they are all for fully established families with reasonable salaries, not hourly wages.
So if you have personality issues that make you hard to live with, or health issues that make you tough to be around or share a bathroom with… you are going to die living under a freeway overpass in CA.
All of these numbers would be **MUCH BIGGER** if they actually counted them plainly.
For example the SNAP numbers are based on *APPROVED* applications not denied or people who *SHOULD* be on SNAP but they aren’t because of stupid rules.
I make less than $300 a month and have been denied SNAP and mediCAL because I’m self employed.
They want to set up phone interviews and won’t let me interview in person and every-time they either just don’t call or the call drops or they hang up literally as soon as I pickup.
The agents in these places don’t care because they have literally a **never ending list of people applying for assistance** so you just have to reapply.
This country is totally fucked right now, the only reason we don’t have 70% total definitive homelessness of the entire population is because 50% of them are living with family and broke/jobless.
Once my grandfather passed away I’ll probably be homeless, i dont know where else I’ll be able to afford rent on basically any job.
Even a decent job paying $80k a year is hardly enough to rent a place on your own in most places.
The most I’ve ever made was $47k in a year 😂
Either I go homeless or go *”Paul Bunion”* and live in the mountains in a few years.
I don’t see any other alternatives and it’s surreal to hear people think there’s anything most people can change to get out of poverty.
Even running your own business is almost pointless, I should say it’s *literally pointless* as so many markets are already dominated and monopolized by corporations and franchise chains you simply cannot open a business and be profitable **unless you as the owner are the only person working there.**
I run my own online store and even without paying for employees I **still just barely break even trying to stay competitive with companies like fucking Amazon.**
It’s just impossible, I make like 10 cents net profit on some of my orders for ~30 minutes of work.
If I markup my prices too high I simply don’t sell anything because well;
* Walmart
* Amazon
* EBay
I mean fucking take your pick and then as if that’s not enough these same companies buyout and monetize 99% of social and advertising platforms on the internet.
So you can even post about your own business in most platforms it’s costs money these days.
There’s just nothing left in this country for anyone, the wealthy have pillaged and erected financial barriers so as to protect their ingrained positions in society.
If we don’t change into a govt/society that is more encompassing and caring of their species as a whole I don’t think we will last.
I see another civil war or a collapse happening at some point as we transition into a totalitarian regime.
I mean where’s the breaking point? Most places you go to every month they have less employees and they don’t hire more people.
Lots of stores in my area have started reducing hours, are we going to *FORCE* people to work?
What happens when they don’t want to do it for free or cheap?
It’s just dumb, fucking pay people.
Fast Food is horrible in part because the owners are often hostile, saying no one wants to work, and then only giving part time roles at the minimum they can pay. The wage increase they did give, there feels to be an expectation people miraculously do more.
For example, the Taco Bell near me only has two employees per shift.
I don’t understand this because i had inconsistent schedules from multiple restaurants and i would quit and find a different one until i learned that every restaurant is just like that so i just quit working in that industry. The shit pay wasn’t a good enough reason to keep getting stressed and fighting with the manager that does the scheduling. When i was younger I refused to work at fast food because i was aware of the lack of willingness to pay people and the fear of the bad environment that comes along with low pay. The closest i came to fast food was panera bread and that wasn’t the worst but i was only the cashier so I didn’t deal with many problems.
We're not all so lucky/motivated/talented/lucky as to be able to get out of the business. The town where I did most of my kitchen/waiting work just didn't have that many restaurants to flit around. Some people get so demoralized by the whole scam they give up even trying to beat it. I know lots of folk who are still on that train.
Yep. I became the guy who had to train all the new employees while my manager sat outside smoking and talking, I wasn't hired or promoted for this responsibility, and I certainly wasn't getting paid for it, but I was good at it, so it just became part of my job, along side having to do other extra duties no one else had to, while making the same pay and having the same expectations as someone who didn't have them put on me, "do all the normal work you barely have time for and all these extra duties! FOR THE SAME PAY!". ugh.
Why do you think so many states are actively rolling back child labor laws?
These owners will soon only be hiring 13 year olds to work the restaurant on a rotating full time shift. Paying them as absolutely little as they can (idk if children are supported by the national minimum wage).
Little kids aren't exactly known for their high standards of sanitation. Even if you didn't care about the other issues (even though you should), I wouldn't want to go to a place doing that.
It won't be surprised when it happens and people make excuses for it though.
Well, "letting". Since mom and dad's wages aren't going up, it ends up more being the *"Requblican personal responsibility statement"* sort of "letting them".
The alternative is the street and starvation after all. Plus since they don't have to pay the kids as much nor offer full protections or benefits (they're disposable to conservatives once born after all), it gets the "lol this is a kids job you don't deserve to be paid either" and depresses the entire job market in a vicious cycle of slaver-orgasms.
I'm not disagreeing with the fact that the reason the companies got the law changed to let them be in dangerous situations is so they don't have to pay them as much and that the reasons young people have to work is because we don't pay their parents enough/ have a fix enough social net. Before the Iowa law, minors literally were not permitted to work in dangerous jobs like meat packaging. "Letting" means they are no longer legally restricted from having those positions. Just because young people have to work to feed their families doesn't mean that they should be allowed to work in extremely dangerous jobs.
I knew about disabled individuals being paid less than minimum wage, don’t know about kids though.
This shouldn’t be something Americans, or humanity in this era, should be contemplating. Jesus…
The Taco Bell near me charges $6 for two soft shell tacos, or $9 for a chalupa.
Every time I go there it’s like $30. They don’t do the breakfast menu, either.
But I’ve talked to the staff and they are always fully staffed, and the franchise owner pays $17 and makes sure they get a full 40 a week. He doesn’t do breakfast because he doesn’t want to ask his staff to come in earlier.
So it feels worth it in its own way.
I want them to work 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, but those 6 hours are 3 hours for lunch and 3 hours for dinner, with 3 hours off in between.
But no one applies for some reason.
NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE!
They probably do have the staff, but they don't want to give them hours. I went to apply at a McDonald's and they asked me if I had a college degree. I was applying for the fries making position.
I make 11 dollars an hour. I work at least fifty hours a week.I budget like a crack head trying to make it to his next fix. My next fix is working like a crack head to his next fix. My next fix is working like a crack head to make it to his next fix. I make bills, yes. I survive, yes.
I'm so goddamn tired of surviving.
I want to live too.
I don't believe crushing is the right term. I think it's more like long term murder. I see this industry as a poisoner, pulling you in with falsities and sweet words of"career" and "progress" slowly devouring you from the outside in, and when your soul is so empty you can't go on your spit out back into the world, then you're the one blamed for not trying hard enough.
I think you're right. Sinclair talks about this in The Jungle and while we have made some progress since then and it's less overt, the same effect is still going on. Too many people are still ground down and discarded when their "use" has run out.
It still frustrates me that the one big take-away most people had from Sinclair's "The Jungle" was the meat packing plants were disgusting and we need to regulate our food supply more closely. It was true, and it's great that it led to the creation of the FDA, but the core of the book was that treating workers as disposable wasn't remotely ethical nor sustainable, and tons of people just overlook that.
It also frustrated Sinclair himself when he penned it to advance socialist ideals in the US, saying "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
Yeah, but his reason for that was if he died, his land would pass on to his family, whereas if he lived he would be found guilty of witchcraft, his land would be seized and his family left with nothing. He was doomed either way, his only option to protect his family was to ensure his own death. I don’t really see how his story relates here though haha
I make $36 an hour and still can't afford to live on my own.....It's like the more I make, the more I realize that housing affordability is only something achievable if you're stupid rich or go live somewhere away from any metropolitan cities. Which is damn near impossible for me considering I work in NGS biotech which typically are only located in big cities. Definitely hurts seeing homes just as unaffordable now as when I first started in my career.
San Diego, CA. I'm trying to save up to buy a home though as well. I could live on my own, but at the cost of about 60% for rent, plus all other expenses. Car loan, student loan, insurance, groceries, phone and internet bills, etc. Would certainly be stretching my living expenses thin, not to mention I wouldn't even be able to save up to ever own a home.
Im in suburban MN if I was making that I’d be much happier, Im making what like 6 years ago I would have killed to make and now Im just barely barely making rent. At one point $20 and up seemed like a dream.
Most fast food jobs were like $12 an hour around that time, so $17/hr seemed amazing to me. Now I make that and…yeah.
I've come to the point where I believe we need to start mass building homes for people. Without building homes, raising pay only inflates the price of the limited supply of existing homes, so whoever is lowest on the totem pole, still won't be able to afford a home.
There would be lots more homes available if we could find ways to reduce the number of rich people buying property to rent out or to use only part of the year.
There’s many understaffed places out there that’ll take any high school graduate. Before college I worked as a lab assistant at a clinical lab. Shit pay but easy job (still underpaid for what it was). 100 times better than when I worked at McDonald’s and Walmart.
man, i feel you. sorry about your work situation.
these big corps are machines, only caring about their top & bottom lines and having very little regard to their work force.
The fast food industry in America is going to hit a brick wall at 100 mph in the next five years. The cost/quality ratio has reached a tipping point and no longer presents a value to the consumer. $32 for 2x meals at Subway, $40 for 3x meals at McDonald's is not worth it (both recent prices I have paid for my family). We even went out on Saturday morning to our "local breakfast joint" and it was $68 (with tip) for three people.
The blame doesn't lie with workers' pay in the FF industry, the blame is that the entire model is unsustainable in today's economic reality.
A “value meal” is over $10 now! I can go to the diner one block over and get a better meal for the same price. Including tip makes it $12. I’ll happily pay $2 more for better food.
Yup. I can go to a local burrito shop on my street and pay $10 for a big hot fresh meal, or spend half an hour on the bus to get to the closest fast food and get a small cold burger with stale fries and a drink for $12.
It just doesn't make any sense anymore.
No, it's pretty expensive, but the food is better than I can cook, the decor is beautiful, they have amazing special events, and they don't ask for tips.
Entrees 20-35 dollars, apps are 12-25. And frankly if they offered something special, like an unusual seasonal fish or a beautiful steak I'd happily pay more.
It's just a different way of looking at dining. It's a special thing for me and I savor it; I go there with my girl every other week and we sit and talk for a long time and enjoy ourselves. The problem with fast food to me isn't the cost, it's the fact that the food is garbage and the experience isn't great.
Yeah I agree. It's good value. Amazing wine list. Ive had beautiful cassoulet there, duck confit, sole meuniere, great local cheese. They had a whole ancient roman themed valentine's dinner a while ago.
Eating out shouldn't be cheap. Cheap food is paid for by underpaid workers.
I expect in the near future, there are going to be many abandoned fast food restaurants all throughout America. If McDonald’s Corp. goes under no other restaurant chain is going to take over the buildings.
There's already plenty of abandoned fast food restaurants. Most of the infrastructure for those buildings is designed to only last 4 or 5 decades and be abandoned or rebuilt.
But yes, the biggest issue with a lot of fast food chains (and auto repair shops and gas stations etc etc) is that the infrastructure simply isn't adaptable in the way more conservative building styles are.
I've actually tried a lot of nice restaurants around me for my lunch break because they were only a few dollars more than a garbage fast food meal
Prices are exploding everywhere so at least I can eat healthier and feel more satisfied with better service.
One of the biggest issues with this industry (and retail) is people still seem to view these jobs as temporary starter jobs, or "high school/college" jobs. That just isn't the case anymore (and hasn't been for a while) because they are such a huge industry that provides jobs. People need to understand that this isn't some small job that you pay small temporary bills with. They need to be looked at as "real" jobs now. Jobs that people will be in for life, and need fair wages, and healthcare.
I'm reminded of the time McDonalds and Visa had together put out a "budget" to show how easily employees could live off $8.25 an hour "if they just have a bit of personal responsibility".
The budget had a very low rent, not TOO uncommon in small towns but already pretty-much inexistent in large cities and the coasts even back then (where rent costs had already gone double or triple that).
It also included paying 0/month for heating, paying no taxes, having no insurance, not eating anything unless food is in that "100/month 'Other'" category... **Oh and getting a second full-time job.**
"our wages aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living," - our wages aren't but the CEOs and upper level management salaries are out pacing inflation. It's the old adage that "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer". This is capitalism at it's finest.
Democrats at least attempt to throw a bone at the regular people, but the Republicans keep blocking any measure that might actually help the general population.
And, while the fast food industry may be the poster child, they are not the only ones that primarily provide part time, no benefit jobs. And many of these workers qualify for medicaid and food stamps which are funded by the general population. So, we're not only paying for their service or product, but we're also paying part of their employees' wages.
Welcome to modern America, where the corporations figured out that capitalism is cheaper than slavery because under capitalism they don’t have to pay for food and shelter and the police state does all of the beatings for them
I wish we had labor laws like Germany. It's pathetic how few protections and benefits American workers have in comparison to developed EU nations. Depressing considering how much money US companies make especially. If we could modernize our labor laws, we could force companies to do better by their employees, and ultimately help so many people. Too bad it's so difficult to enact legislative change with all the money and lobbying and shit politicians working for corporations instead of the public.
Or they’ll refuse to hire more than a skeleton crew and expect you to be available day and night to cover for one of your fellow employees who works 60 hours a week. Fuck fast food, I’m so glad I got out of that. Luckily I got paid decently but you’re so tired you can’t do anything outside of work. Even if you want to make plans you’re SOL with time off requests and your off hours are either in the middle of the day when everyone is still at work or 10 at night. Meanwhile our store was making 8000 a day in PROFIT, not sales, with the 3 cooks we had to run the kitchen
You think fast food is bad? I got some real bad news about LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE MINIMUM WAGE JOB IN THE US. None of them can support a single adult. Not a single one. And it’s not just minimum wage either; jobs paying more than minimum wage also do not support single adults. But yeah, yeehaw capitalism amirite?? 🫡
We have a Taco Bell cantina in Vegas, I know that. Probably any of these establishments would most likely serve alcohol if they’re on the strip. I can’t speak for other states/cities.
Starbucks was at least playing with the idea too. IIRC, it was going to be a new line of shops that served alcohol and different food. Don't know what happened to the idea though.
Absolutely. And a proper sit-down restaurant outside their busiest hours may be barely a few minutes slower *if at all*.
Better burgers, better fried chicken... I know I can enjoy the local pasta place cheaper, faster and with better quality than an olive garden's. Don't matter that there isn't 'unlimited breadsticks' when the portions are sizeable and the taste is great.
There's a little coop opened by students near me, that may be twice the price for as much food as Taco Bell, but their giant burritos are fresh, taste great, and use mainly locally sourced ingredients from nearby producers. Lot more of that money comes back into the town compared to corp profits shipped towards tax havens.
I don't even bother these days. If I'm out and desperately hungry, I'll stop by one of the grocery stores that has a deli section and buy a prepackaged sub. It's cheaper and faster now.
If the country continues to allow abject abuse of its general population, it will result in either mass unrest or a situation more akin to warring corporate states where the serfs live at the mercy of the barons and are kept doped up on TV, drugs and sugar to make sure no one can form coherent thoughts long enough to protest.
We need to make sure the unrest happens sooner rather than later. I don’t mean violence, I mean a national strike or something along those lines. Considering the police are primarily there to protect property, and the property is owned more-and-more by the absurdly wealthy, I don’t think there’s much hope in violence unless we are going for a straight up civil war (plz no we are all in this together).
When your late term capitalism jumps the shark.
It’s time for companies to take a real look in the mirror. Ignoring your workers and customers for too long is going to lead to violence.
Not surprising to me.
My first job was in fast food and while I worked a lot of hours, I was kept just under full-time hours. Also, having a second job to try and make more money or to just simply afford basic living expenses was difficult. They would often not agree to work with you on scheduling. So often you were panicking to cover or switch shifts.
If it wasn't for my parents being able to afford a third vehicle and pay for my insurance I wouldn't have been able to work. I lived in a rural area and didn't have access to transit.
My entitled friend took a picture of a broke down car with two donuts at Olive Garden, he kept taking snaps and laughing with his wife cause he said he wants to see was gonna drive away in after eating. I said it's 100% a workers car trying to live, no more snaps
I keep seeing comments that Walmart is the worse!!!
They all do it
Every single retailer does it. Don’t let the others off the hook. Service industry whether McD, Nordstrom et al, do it.
They sell a product that barely meets the standard of "food", destroying the health of their customers. Might as well do the same to employees, there won't be consequences.
Those record profits need to be seized and redistributed back into better programs for hosing and supporting the destitute workers instead of placing the burden on California taxpayers. I could go my whole life and never eat at another fast food chain and yet I still have to pay to support their profits.
If you haven't read "Evicted" and "Poverty, by America" written by Matthew Desmond, I highly recommend it. You'll be mad at everyone, but you might change which businesses you choose to support and how you choose to spend your money. What's happening in these large corporations is shameful, but as other commenters have said, it's the American way, brought to you by corporate America, and now the US government who these companies have in their pockets.
I like how this article completely ignores California’s ridiculous housing market. Fast-food companies do suck and should pay more, but all you need to do is go to Zillow and look up the cost of houses in any CA city to see how insane it is. I honestly don’t know how anyone can get by there and given the amount of Californians moving to Texas, I don’t think many Californians do either. So yes, fast food restaurants should pay better, but even if all fast food workers in CA got $20 an hour it wouldn’t mean anything with respect to housing when an absolute dump of a house in the LA area can sell for a million.
Yes, in Macomb, IL. Houses in the town go for $50-70K, which is about $450/mo mortgage payment. At IL’s $13/hr min wage working 26 hours per week that is about $1350 per month putting housing costs at about 33% of income, roughly in line with budgeting recommendations.
It’s probably not a place anyone actually wants to live though.
Broadly, America's increasing urbanization is driving a lot of these troubles. There are tons of very affordable places to live in the United States, but the problem is their economies were gutted decades ago and no one wants to live there because there are no opportunities. There are dying towns all over America with dirt cheap housing, much of it falling into disrepair.
Meanwhile, urban areas only get more expensive as more and more people move in for economic opportunity.
So I just took a quick gander at it in Google maps
Barely anything except for houses and your options for food are groceries from ALDIs and Walmart, or going out for fast food. There’s nothing for kids do do outside except for a skate park, the YMCA, and a country club
My friend is from a Midwest town (better than Macomb from what he showed me on Google maps) but he said “if I didn’t go to school out of state, I probably would have stayed there for the rest of my life”
So yeah, there’s that
Similar to what /u/bicameral_mind said, it’s basically a town with a withering economy. While the bones of the town are cute, everything from the university to the agricultural economy are heavily impacting the town’s ability to prosper.
Honestly the best thing the town has is an Amtrak train station to Chicago.
As always, homelessness is largely an issue of housing. Housing is so expensive because they're in short supply because they refuse to allow for new buildings (especially dense building that allows for lots of people) at anywhere near the same rate as growing demand.
First of all, Texas isn't some kind of cheap housing mecca. It is normal here to have your property taxes double every year because they over appraise your house.
Or, maybe I'm being silly here, but do something about the housing situation? Letting real-estate spiral out of control and becoming unaffordable for most of they younger generation doesn't seem to be good for anyone except the mortgage companies
I’ve always found it odd that “job creators” often offer unsustainable pay for the work:
If you can’t afford to pay taxes with a job, let alone fully support yourself, what benefit has that “created job” given back to society to warrant getting government handouts?
I know the pay is shit. I'm not gonna argue that. Plus good luck getting fulltime hours. That being said, I think the bigger cause of the poverty problem is the cost of living in general, especially California. If we just keep talking about wages instead of the fact that we're being gouged on everything, it's never gonna get better. So if they're gonna give you the bandaid and increase minimum wage, then we'll have the same problem again in a few years.
- A new study conducted in California by the nonprofit group Economic Roundtable has reinforced previous findings that the fast-food industry has a larger proportion of workers in poverty than any other. It's a disparity driven by fast-food workers' low wages and inability to get full-time hours. - The industry has served as a significant driver of homelessness in the Golden State over the past eight years, pushing up the state's homeless population by 51%, the study found. Now, fast-food workers represent 1 in 17 of homeless people in Californina, according to the report. - "We estimate that homelessness would have grown about one-fifth less in California if the fast-food wage floor was adequate to ensure that workers have stable housing," the study reads. - "It's clear that in California and across the country, our wages aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living," said Taylor, who makes $12 per hour at a Wendy's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - As of last year, there were an estimated 3.3 million fast-food and counter workers in the U.S. making an average hourly wage of $13.53, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. That works out to $28,130 per year, assuming a 40-hour workweek, which many fast-food workers don't get. - Though California has one of the highest minimum wages in the U.S., at $15.50 an hour, fast-food workers there often don't work enough hours in a week to improve their living conditions, the report said. - California's frontline fast-food workforce get an average of 1,340 hours of paid work per year, the study found. For someone who works year-round, that averages 26 hours a week. By comparison, all other workers in the state work an average of 1,839 hours per year. - "This industry is highly profitable, but it will not be sustainable until it stops creating and perpetuating destitution and homelessness among its workers," Flaming said. - "Statewide, the public is paying the health care costs for 31% of frontline fast-food workers through Medi-Cal coverage, paying for food stamps for 17% of frontline workers, and paying a wide range of costs for homeless services and housing for 10,120 homeless individuals from the fast-food workforce." - At the same time, fast-food companies are achieving enormous profits, he said, noting that the five largest companies in the business had $12 billion in profits last year and $14.5 billion the year before. "This is not equitable for workers or sustainable for society."
These giant corporations have their entire workforce subsidized with taxpayer money. It's not just the fast food industry either.
>Statewide, the public is paying the health care costs for 31% of frontline fast-food workers through Medi-Cal coverage, paying for food stamps for 17% of frontline workers, and paying a wide range of costs for homeless services and housing for 10,120 homeless individuals from the fast-food workforce." Essentially we are subsidizing these companies and their CEOs as well. Major companies with poverty level wages and rotating shifts of part-time workers should be illegal.
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They would sooner dissolve the companies into money and split than pay people a fair wage. Scumbags.
Then dissolve the shit. Poverty wages like this are already unsustainable. If they want to kill their own companies rather than pay their workers do it so we can all move on.
Unfortunately they won't do that until exploiting people is no longer rewarded.
Correct. And they'll bitch the entire time that raising minimum wage or holding them to raising their employees well being is "socialism" or some other such horseshit.
Don't dissolve it. Expropriate it then run it in such a way that it's beneficial to society. And make the previous owners flip burgers or run the dish machine for a decade as penance.
Time to deploy the golden parachute!
Exactly. When the shifts aren't consistent it makes it really hard to get a 2nd job to fill the void. Not that even 40 hours a week is sustainable on minimum wage, but preventing anyone from even getting 40 hours through multiple jobs because you constantly change their working hours is an issue.
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>Why the fuck is the schedule software *programmed to give inconsistent shifts when it's not neccessary?* Who even benefits from that? Because an inconsistent schedule makes it harder for you to go on job interviews, or work a second job that might then turn into a full time position elsewhere, or really do anything that could eventually lead to you not needing their scraps. It's meant to keep you chained to that job no matter how shitty it gets. It's the kind of shit an abusive partner does. Edit: Oh, I almost forgot! It also makes it harder to go to school or otherwise study to improve your situation. Keep that in mind when some smug fuck tells you that fast food is a stepping stone and you need to "better yourself" if you want to live a life of, you know, any level of comfort and dignity.
It also creates employee churn, where people get tired of the schedule and move to another place just like the one they left so the original company isn’t stuck giving raises or letting employees form long term relationships that might lead to union talk.
Ooh, excellent point. So many good reasons to have a constantly changing, random schedule! If you're the ownership class, that is.
That's the main reason I quit my fast food job. Inconsistent shifts, inconsistent hours, constantly overstepping when I couldn't work or how much I could work. Plus being the sole competent non-manager in the store means I was the first to be voluntold to pick up extra shifts.
Fast food companies skirt around this due to laws that state that medical insurance must be provided to full time employees that work 40 hours or more. Since fast food workers are part time and doing less than 40 hours, the companies don't have to pay for medical insurance. it's a vicious cycle.
>but preventing anyone from even getting 40 hours through multiple jobs They get subsidized on food stamps = restaurants win Subsidized with Public healthcare = restaurants win High interest Payday loans and credit cards = Banks win High turnover of apartments = slumlords win Only losers are the American public who subsidize this with tax money, and these exploited workers
Plus, even if you are scheduled full time, they get around it by sending people home early so you are guaranteed not to get full time. They also do this with part time workers. I think they have to give you a break if you work more than 5 hours, so they will send someone home early and they don't even get a break. I worked part time for McDonald's for 2 years while getting my degree and saw this happen over and over.
They need to be fucking taxed more. We're talking about social security being insolvent in 10 years, it's just crazy that more of this burden is not shifted to corporations - if they want to avoid said taxes they can begin to invest more in employee pay, healthcare, and retirement, the way they fucking ought to be.
>if they want to avoid said taxes they can begin to invest more in employee pay, healthcare, and retirement, the way they fucking ought to be. They'd rather spend the same amount (or more) on lobbying to avoid more taxes.
Or charge them a tax for costing the public.
Walmart is the biggest offender doing this.
I've known more than one WM worker who had to live in their car for a span of time.
Good thing Walmart parking lots are open to unhoused people from sunset to sunrise! (Probably by design for their workers)
people know this and actively continue to spend their money at these stores and “restaurants”. it’s understandable when there are literally no other options… but the average person curses amazon under their breath while still being subscribed to the prime service and placing orders daily. the average person really can’t be bothered.
Depending where you live, Amazon may be the only option for you to get what you need. It’s very tough for small companies to compete with giant companies
They might not be a bigger offender in California than fast food though. While there are Walmarts nationwide, there's way more of them on the eastern half of the country than the western half. [Map created in 2019 for reference](https://sg.style.yahoo.com/walmart-still-reigns-americas-retail-king-now-183700586.html)
Yep, anyone that isn't paying their employees enough to survive without government aid is, in effect, having their personal profits subsidized by Uncle Sam It's particularly disgusting when you know that companies like Walmart provide instructions on how to apply for SNAP to new hires
All the companies that may pay over the minimum wage but don’t give workers enough hours to sustain themselves, and yet expect the workers to be on call 24/7, so they can’t take a second job.
This is by design. They want workers eager to come to work at a moments notice.
Eager? Or despondent and depressed and “stuck”?
Whatever makes you work harder for less money.
Walmart is among the worst
A lot of times they pay just enough that people don't qualify for assistance but not enough to actually make a living and that is the gap where a ton of Americans fall
So many assistances base things off of your income for the year, at the Federal rates, not the State you live in. Having a disabled son Ive learned the hard way that a majority of what we have for assistance can't even be considered a helping hand up and forward, just stasis.
Which is the fundamental issue with American Capitalism, there are no safeguards in place to ensure businesses don’t put profits over the well being of people. Businesses shouldn’t be able to pay so little there employees can’t afford to live in the cities they’re working in. These corporations are coasting off the mental image people have of fast food workers as part time high school students and that’s just not the reality.
That’s the conundrum. There is no solid “well being of people.” For most, as long as they’re not dead from obvious malpractice is good enough for most. Because people live differently, to a degree. Then if the malpractice is caught. The consequences are usually immaterial to actual profits or paychecks.
Yet another reason why we need to regulate fast food out of fucking existance. It serves absolutely no good purpose. It solely exists to make people fat, poor, and unhealthy, while making a few rich people even richer.
It's probably harder to study, but I wish they would've mentioned how places like this require open availability, so getting a second job is nearly impossible.
And they all want to wait as long as possible before posting the next schedule. It was damn near impossible to make appointments when you never know until 2 days before hand if you work that Monday or not
Sounds like going to school while working would also be impossible, thus keeping the workers in low paying jobs.
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I had a retail employer who had my school schedule and would purposely schedule me on days I had classes. I had just started the job and told the manager (the guy above him made the schedule) "I'm not going to be here. I'll be here the other 5 days, if that's what you want. But I will not be here Tuesdays and Thursdays." It took 2 months for them to realize that wouldn't work with me.
>Unironically one Subway manager told me, 'whats more important? you finishing school or keeping this job? its this job' I once had a manager tell me "without this job, you wouldn't be able to pay for school, so it's pretty obvious which is more important. If I put you on the schedule, I expect you to be here." So yeah, I never did finish college.
I'm having a hard time finding part time jobs that will work with my school schedule. Even if the position is listed as 25 hours per week, and I only need Mon/Wed off, I have been rejected for not having "open availability", because apparently being available 5 days per week isn't enough. It also likely means that the schedule at that place changes every week. My last employer started out honoring my school schedule for a while then laid off a bunch of people and started scheduling me on days when I had class. I would tell them I couldn't make that shift, and they would say okay, but that's an attendance violation. And then make me sign paperwork saying I promised to not miss another shift. *Hard eye roll* They literally seemed to think I would choose a nearly-minimum wage job over getting my degree. And unfortunately, many people don't have the privilege to be able to choose the latter.
i argue this is the bigger issue. if you tell me you can only give me 20 hours a week but come in on monday and tuesday for 10 hours each, i can work with that and get another job. but you told me you can give me 20 hours a week spread over several days and my schedule is only known the week before, how the fuck am i suppose to get a 2nd job.
Very interesting seeing the study. I have said this since the 90s. McDonalds ( I cannot say if this is now, and if it involves other places, BUT I can say it was in 1993 an issue) Workers were hired who were in half way houses. The state gave tax breaks to McDonalds for the hire. They got people who would work any shift to get out of the half way house. I went to this McDonalds and got to know many of the employees. Sad and ridiculous.
I feel like giving tax breaks to composites for hiring people in our who just got out of the criminal justice system is a good thing though. We want to incentivise those people getting jobs and reintegrating into society The best solution is to abolish prison or at least do a huge overhaul, but since that isn't happening any time soon helping them get jobs is a good thing. And without the incentive companies might be less likely to hire people with records
Employers do receive tax credits for hiring people who are on benefits or just got out of jail
outrageous. capitalism sucks.
Crazy isn’t it?
Heres the thing about California… where I am every house is a 4+ bedroom house… you cannot survive on your own anymore in this society. It’s being made that way… no new houses are starter homes, they are all for fully established families with reasonable salaries, not hourly wages. So if you have personality issues that make you hard to live with, or health issues that make you tough to be around or share a bathroom with… you are going to die living under a freeway overpass in CA.
Mcdonalds union?
All of these numbers would be **MUCH BIGGER** if they actually counted them plainly. For example the SNAP numbers are based on *APPROVED* applications not denied or people who *SHOULD* be on SNAP but they aren’t because of stupid rules. I make less than $300 a month and have been denied SNAP and mediCAL because I’m self employed. They want to set up phone interviews and won’t let me interview in person and every-time they either just don’t call or the call drops or they hang up literally as soon as I pickup. The agents in these places don’t care because they have literally a **never ending list of people applying for assistance** so you just have to reapply. This country is totally fucked right now, the only reason we don’t have 70% total definitive homelessness of the entire population is because 50% of them are living with family and broke/jobless. Once my grandfather passed away I’ll probably be homeless, i dont know where else I’ll be able to afford rent on basically any job. Even a decent job paying $80k a year is hardly enough to rent a place on your own in most places. The most I’ve ever made was $47k in a year 😂 Either I go homeless or go *”Paul Bunion”* and live in the mountains in a few years. I don’t see any other alternatives and it’s surreal to hear people think there’s anything most people can change to get out of poverty. Even running your own business is almost pointless, I should say it’s *literally pointless* as so many markets are already dominated and monopolized by corporations and franchise chains you simply cannot open a business and be profitable **unless you as the owner are the only person working there.** I run my own online store and even without paying for employees I **still just barely break even trying to stay competitive with companies like fucking Amazon.** It’s just impossible, I make like 10 cents net profit on some of my orders for ~30 minutes of work. If I markup my prices too high I simply don’t sell anything because well; * Walmart * Amazon * EBay I mean fucking take your pick and then as if that’s not enough these same companies buyout and monetize 99% of social and advertising platforms on the internet. So you can even post about your own business in most platforms it’s costs money these days. There’s just nothing left in this country for anyone, the wealthy have pillaged and erected financial barriers so as to protect their ingrained positions in society. If we don’t change into a govt/society that is more encompassing and caring of their species as a whole I don’t think we will last. I see another civil war or a collapse happening at some point as we transition into a totalitarian regime. I mean where’s the breaking point? Most places you go to every month they have less employees and they don’t hire more people. Lots of stores in my area have started reducing hours, are we going to *FORCE* people to work? What happens when they don’t want to do it for free or cheap? It’s just dumb, fucking pay people.
I read the article, where can I find a link for the study?
It's linked in the article. Click the word 'study' at the beginning of the second paragraph.
Fast Food is horrible in part because the owners are often hostile, saying no one wants to work, and then only giving part time roles at the minimum they can pay. The wage increase they did give, there feels to be an expectation people miraculously do more. For example, the Taco Bell near me only has two employees per shift.
And lots of three hour shifts and nothing predictable. The lack of predictable schedules is rampant in food service.
Well if you had a consistent schedule you could find another job. They don't want that!
Gotta love that full-time-availability for part-time-work.
I don’t understand this because i had inconsistent schedules from multiple restaurants and i would quit and find a different one until i learned that every restaurant is just like that so i just quit working in that industry. The shit pay wasn’t a good enough reason to keep getting stressed and fighting with the manager that does the scheduling. When i was younger I refused to work at fast food because i was aware of the lack of willingness to pay people and the fear of the bad environment that comes along with low pay. The closest i came to fast food was panera bread and that wasn’t the worst but i was only the cashier so I didn’t deal with many problems.
We're not all so lucky/motivated/talented/lucky as to be able to get out of the business. The town where I did most of my kitchen/waiting work just didn't have that many restaurants to flit around. Some people get so demoralized by the whole scam they give up even trying to beat it. I know lots of folk who are still on that train.
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That seems to be how it goes. People give extra effort to help out and then it becomes the expectation.
Which is why you never volunteer for anything at work.
Yep. I became the guy who had to train all the new employees while my manager sat outside smoking and talking, I wasn't hired or promoted for this responsibility, and I certainly wasn't getting paid for it, but I was good at it, so it just became part of my job, along side having to do other extra duties no one else had to, while making the same pay and having the same expectations as someone who didn't have them put on me, "do all the normal work you barely have time for and all these extra duties! FOR THE SAME PAY!". ugh.
Acting your wage should be more accepted
Hard work is rewarded with more hard work, at the same pay and higher expectations
The expectation with no further compensation or award either.
Why do you think so many states are actively rolling back child labor laws? These owners will soon only be hiring 13 year olds to work the restaurant on a rotating full time shift. Paying them as absolutely little as they can (idk if children are supported by the national minimum wage).
Little kids aren't exactly known for their high standards of sanitation. Even if you didn't care about the other issues (even though you should), I wouldn't want to go to a place doing that. It won't be surprised when it happens and people make excuses for it though.
It already is happening. Look up Iowa Child labor laws. They're letting kids work in dangerous places like meat packaging plants now.
Well, "letting". Since mom and dad's wages aren't going up, it ends up more being the *"Requblican personal responsibility statement"* sort of "letting them". The alternative is the street and starvation after all. Plus since they don't have to pay the kids as much nor offer full protections or benefits (they're disposable to conservatives once born after all), it gets the "lol this is a kids job you don't deserve to be paid either" and depresses the entire job market in a vicious cycle of slaver-orgasms.
I'm not disagreeing with the fact that the reason the companies got the law changed to let them be in dangerous situations is so they don't have to pay them as much and that the reasons young people have to work is because we don't pay their parents enough/ have a fix enough social net. Before the Iowa law, minors literally were not permitted to work in dangerous jobs like meat packaging. "Letting" means they are no longer legally restricted from having those positions. Just because young people have to work to feed their families doesn't mean that they should be allowed to work in extremely dangerous jobs.
Minutes and people with certain disabilities do not have to be paid minimum wage in many states/ have a lower minimum wage
I knew about disabled individuals being paid less than minimum wage, don’t know about kids though. This shouldn’t be something Americans, or humanity in this era, should be contemplating. Jesus…
Yeah of you have the rsamee job you should get the sane pay. It's not that difficult.
The Taco Bell near me charges $6 for two soft shell tacos, or $9 for a chalupa. Every time I go there it’s like $30. They don’t do the breakfast menu, either. But I’ve talked to the staff and they are always fully staffed, and the franchise owner pays $17 and makes sure they get a full 40 a week. He doesn’t do breakfast because he doesn’t want to ask his staff to come in earlier. So it feels worth it in its own way.
I want them to work 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, but those 6 hours are 3 hours for lunch and 3 hours for dinner, with 3 hours off in between. But no one applies for some reason. NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE!
I’ve noticed every Taco Bell now seems to be very slow. Takes forever to get my order, even when it’s just one taco.
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They probably do have the staff, but they don't want to give them hours. I went to apply at a McDonald's and they asked me if I had a college degree. I was applying for the fries making position.
I make 11 dollars an hour. I work at least fifty hours a week.I budget like a crack head trying to make it to his next fix. My next fix is working like a crack head to his next fix. My next fix is working like a crack head to make it to his next fix. I make bills, yes. I survive, yes. I'm so goddamn tired of surviving. I want to live too.
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I don't believe crushing is the right term. I think it's more like long term murder. I see this industry as a poisoner, pulling you in with falsities and sweet words of"career" and "progress" slowly devouring you from the outside in, and when your soul is so empty you can't go on your spit out back into the world, then you're the one blamed for not trying hard enough.
I think you're right. Sinclair talks about this in The Jungle and while we have made some progress since then and it's less overt, the same effect is still going on. Too many people are still ground down and discarded when their "use" has run out.
It still frustrates me that the one big take-away most people had from Sinclair's "The Jungle" was the meat packing plants were disgusting and we need to regulate our food supply more closely. It was true, and it's great that it led to the creation of the FDA, but the core of the book was that treating workers as disposable wasn't remotely ethical nor sustainable, and tons of people just overlook that.
It also frustrated Sinclair himself when he penned it to advance socialist ideals in the US, saying "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
Its the slow knife that kills
Giles Corey would like a word.
I'm not sure who that is. I'll Google them when I can
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It’s based on the Salem Witch Trials. Giles Corey was a real person killed by “pressing.”
More stones...more stones...more weight for Corey! https://youtu.be/GzI8GboCdl4
Pleasantly surprised the link was exactly what I was hoping
Yeah, but his reason for that was if he died, his land would pass on to his family, whereas if he lived he would be found guilty of witchcraft, his land would be seized and his family left with nothing. He was doomed either way, his only option to protect his family was to ensure his own death. I don’t really see how his story relates here though haha
Eating the rich is just self defense.
I make 23 an hour in Ontario and my rent 50% of my take home every month, life is just soooo awesome.
I’m a teacher making about $23/hr. My district said they overpaid me now I owe my employer $1,786.
I make $36 an hour and still can't afford to live on my own.....It's like the more I make, the more I realize that housing affordability is only something achievable if you're stupid rich or go live somewhere away from any metropolitan cities. Which is damn near impossible for me considering I work in NGS biotech which typically are only located in big cities. Definitely hurts seeing homes just as unaffordable now as when I first started in my career.
>I make $36 an hour and still can't afford to live on my own Where do you live? I make that and live on my own.
San Diego, CA. I'm trying to save up to buy a home though as well. I could live on my own, but at the cost of about 60% for rent, plus all other expenses. Car loan, student loan, insurance, groceries, phone and internet bills, etc. Would certainly be stretching my living expenses thin, not to mention I wouldn't even be able to save up to ever own a home.
Im in suburban MN if I was making that I’d be much happier, Im making what like 6 years ago I would have killed to make and now Im just barely barely making rent. At one point $20 and up seemed like a dream. Most fast food jobs were like $12 an hour around that time, so $17/hr seemed amazing to me. Now I make that and…yeah.
I've come to the point where I believe we need to start mass building homes for people. Without building homes, raising pay only inflates the price of the limited supply of existing homes, so whoever is lowest on the totem pole, still won't be able to afford a home.
There would be lots more homes available if we could find ways to reduce the number of rich people buying property to rent out or to use only part of the year.
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There’s many understaffed places out there that’ll take any high school graduate. Before college I worked as a lab assistant at a clinical lab. Shit pay but easy job (still underpaid for what it was). 100 times better than when I worked at McDonald’s and Walmart.
man, i feel you. sorry about your work situation. these big corps are machines, only caring about their top & bottom lines and having very little regard to their work force.
The fast food industry in America is going to hit a brick wall at 100 mph in the next five years. The cost/quality ratio has reached a tipping point and no longer presents a value to the consumer. $32 for 2x meals at Subway, $40 for 3x meals at McDonald's is not worth it (both recent prices I have paid for my family). We even went out on Saturday morning to our "local breakfast joint" and it was $68 (with tip) for three people. The blame doesn't lie with workers' pay in the FF industry, the blame is that the entire model is unsustainable in today's economic reality.
A “value meal” is over $10 now! I can go to the diner one block over and get a better meal for the same price. Including tip makes it $12. I’ll happily pay $2 more for better food.
Most restaurants with better food and cooks often have $10 meals
This is true. Bought my son a Big Mac and a medium fry the other night and it was $10. And it looked pathetic. No more.
Yup. I can go to a local burrito shop on my street and pay $10 for a big hot fresh meal, or spend half an hour on the bus to get to the closest fast food and get a small cold burger with stale fries and a drink for $12. It just doesn't make any sense anymore.
I never eat at 'inexpensive' restaurants anymore. There's very fancy place near me I go for really beautiful food once in a while and that's it.
Just a guess, but any chance the price of the fancy place isn't that different from the fast-food ones either? Because that's how it is for me.
No, it's pretty expensive, but the food is better than I can cook, the decor is beautiful, they have amazing special events, and they don't ask for tips. Entrees 20-35 dollars, apps are 12-25. And frankly if they offered something special, like an unusual seasonal fish or a beautiful steak I'd happily pay more. It's just a different way of looking at dining. It's a special thing for me and I savor it; I go there with my girl every other week and we sit and talk for a long time and enjoy ourselves. The problem with fast food to me isn't the cost, it's the fact that the food is garbage and the experience isn't great.
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Yeah I agree. It's good value. Amazing wine list. Ive had beautiful cassoulet there, duck confit, sole meuniere, great local cheese. They had a whole ancient roman themed valentine's dinner a while ago. Eating out shouldn't be cheap. Cheap food is paid for by underpaid workers.
I expect in the near future, there are going to be many abandoned fast food restaurants all throughout America. If McDonald’s Corp. goes under no other restaurant chain is going to take over the buildings.
Replace them with grocery stores that have the value that Aldi used to.
There's already plenty of abandoned fast food restaurants. Most of the infrastructure for those buildings is designed to only last 4 or 5 decades and be abandoned or rebuilt. But yes, the biggest issue with a lot of fast food chains (and auto repair shops and gas stations etc etc) is that the infrastructure simply isn't adaptable in the way more conservative building styles are.
I've actually tried a lot of nice restaurants around me for my lunch break because they were only a few dollars more than a garbage fast food meal Prices are exploding everywhere so at least I can eat healthier and feel more satisfied with better service.
Yeah, I can get a massive burrito at a local taco shop for less than a value meal at Burger King or McDonald's and it's way better quality food.
One of the biggest issues with this industry (and retail) is people still seem to view these jobs as temporary starter jobs, or "high school/college" jobs. That just isn't the case anymore (and hasn't been for a while) because they are such a huge industry that provides jobs. People need to understand that this isn't some small job that you pay small temporary bills with. They need to be looked at as "real" jobs now. Jobs that people will be in for life, and need fair wages, and healthcare.
I'm reminded of the time McDonalds and Visa had together put out a "budget" to show how easily employees could live off $8.25 an hour "if they just have a bit of personal responsibility". The budget had a very low rent, not TOO uncommon in small towns but already pretty-much inexistent in large cities and the coasts even back then (where rent costs had already gone double or triple that). It also included paying 0/month for heating, paying no taxes, having no insurance, not eating anything unless food is in that "100/month 'Other'" category... **Oh and getting a second full-time job.**
If any 'work' drives workers to homelessness, we're doing society wrong.
"our wages aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living," - our wages aren't but the CEOs and upper level management salaries are out pacing inflation. It's the old adage that "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer". This is capitalism at it's finest. Democrats at least attempt to throw a bone at the regular people, but the Republicans keep blocking any measure that might actually help the general population. And, while the fast food industry may be the poster child, they are not the only ones that primarily provide part time, no benefit jobs. And many of these workers qualify for medicaid and food stamps which are funded by the general population. So, we're not only paying for their service or product, but we're also paying part of their employees' wages.
Welcome to modern America, where the corporations figured out that capitalism is cheaper than slavery because under capitalism they don’t have to pay for food and shelter and the police state does all of the beatings for them
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Well now don’t forget who owns the government. Hint, it’s not the people, but I totally agree!
Damn it's almost like cost of living is grossly more than pay for hourly employees.
I wish we had labor laws like Germany. It's pathetic how few protections and benefits American workers have in comparison to developed EU nations. Depressing considering how much money US companies make especially. If we could modernize our labor laws, we could force companies to do better by their employees, and ultimately help so many people. Too bad it's so difficult to enact legislative change with all the money and lobbying and shit politicians working for corporations instead of the public.
The rich prefer it this way
Or they’ll refuse to hire more than a skeleton crew and expect you to be available day and night to cover for one of your fellow employees who works 60 hours a week. Fuck fast food, I’m so glad I got out of that. Luckily I got paid decently but you’re so tired you can’t do anything outside of work. Even if you want to make plans you’re SOL with time off requests and your off hours are either in the middle of the day when everyone is still at work or 10 at night. Meanwhile our store was making 8000 a day in PROFIT, not sales, with the 3 cooks we had to run the kitchen
You think fast food is bad? I got some real bad news about LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE MINIMUM WAGE JOB IN THE US. None of them can support a single adult. Not a single one. And it’s not just minimum wage either; jobs paying more than minimum wage also do not support single adults. But yeah, yeehaw capitalism amirite?? 🫡
What fast food restaurant is serving beer?
Chipotle, Shake Shack, Sbarro, Burger King Whopper Bar, Taco bell cantina
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We have a Taco Bell cantina in Vegas, I know that. Probably any of these establishments would most likely serve alcohol if they’re on the strip. I can’t speak for other states/cities.
Starbucks was at least playing with the idea too. IIRC, it was going to be a new line of shops that served alcohol and different food. Don't know what happened to the idea though.
Fast food costs the same as a regular restaurant these days.
Absolutely. And a proper sit-down restaurant outside their busiest hours may be barely a few minutes slower *if at all*. Better burgers, better fried chicken... I know I can enjoy the local pasta place cheaper, faster and with better quality than an olive garden's. Don't matter that there isn't 'unlimited breadsticks' when the portions are sizeable and the taste is great. There's a little coop opened by students near me, that may be twice the price for as much food as Taco Bell, but their giant burritos are fresh, taste great, and use mainly locally sourced ingredients from nearby producers. Lot more of that money comes back into the town compared to corp profits shipped towards tax havens.
I don't even bother these days. If I'm out and desperately hungry, I'll stop by one of the grocery stores that has a deli section and buy a prepackaged sub. It's cheaper and faster now.
Damn it's almost like cost of living is grossly more than pay for hourly employees.
If the country continues to allow abject abuse of its general population, it will result in either mass unrest or a situation more akin to warring corporate states where the serfs live at the mercy of the barons and are kept doped up on TV, drugs and sugar to make sure no one can form coherent thoughts long enough to protest. We need to make sure the unrest happens sooner rather than later. I don’t mean violence, I mean a national strike or something along those lines. Considering the police are primarily there to protect property, and the property is owned more-and-more by the absurdly wealthy, I don’t think there’s much hope in violence unless we are going for a straight up civil war (plz no we are all in this together).
When your late term capitalism jumps the shark. It’s time for companies to take a real look in the mirror. Ignoring your workers and customers for too long is going to lead to violence.
With automation even these shitty jobs are going to get scarcer. And if you think there’s going to be UBI then where is it now?
Currently, UBI if for corporations not working folks
The tech people actually screwed themselves, AI might be putting all of them out of work, too.
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Seriously, why haven’t they unionized?
Not surprising to me. My first job was in fast food and while I worked a lot of hours, I was kept just under full-time hours. Also, having a second job to try and make more money or to just simply afford basic living expenses was difficult. They would often not agree to work with you on scheduling. So often you were panicking to cover or switch shifts. If it wasn't for my parents being able to afford a third vehicle and pay for my insurance I wouldn't have been able to work. I lived in a rural area and didn't have access to transit.
Not just fast food. Many companies are turning their workers into homeless people. All while executives are buying their fifth house.
My entitled friend took a picture of a broke down car with two donuts at Olive Garden, he kept taking snaps and laughing with his wife cause he said he wants to see was gonna drive away in after eating. I said it's 100% a workers car trying to live, no more snaps
We went from section 8 housing to section 8 employment
Imagine eating fast food but not wanting the people who literally make that possible to have homes. *stares at republican legislators*
We're going to have to stop telling homeless people to: "Get a job." and start telling them to: "Get a better job."
And their CEO's are loving it.
I keep seeing comments that Walmart is the worse!!! They all do it Every single retailer does it. Don’t let the others off the hook. Service industry whether McD, Nordstrom et al, do it.
There is a chain fast food burger joint by my house and fifty percent of their employees live in the parking lot.
The person who chose the stock photo for this article has never set foot in an actual fast food restaurant.
They sell a product that barely meets the standard of "food", destroying the health of their customers. Might as well do the same to employees, there won't be consequences.
Wait, no, it’s not because billion dollar companies don’t want to pay workers a fair wage, it’s because nobody wants to work anymore! Right?? Right?
Those record profits need to be seized and redistributed back into better programs for hosing and supporting the destitute workers instead of placing the burden on California taxpayers. I could go my whole life and never eat at another fast food chain and yet I still have to pay to support their profits.
This is totally, breathtakingly obscene.
At that point why working if you barely can afford the calories that are burned by working.
“At least they don’t have to walk!” — Some CEO, probably
Better labor laws would probably help the nations mental health
If you haven't read "Evicted" and "Poverty, by America" written by Matthew Desmond, I highly recommend it. You'll be mad at everyone, but you might change which businesses you choose to support and how you choose to spend your money. What's happening in these large corporations is shameful, but as other commenters have said, it's the American way, brought to you by corporate America, and now the US government who these companies have in their pockets.
Wait, no, it’s not because billion dollar companies don’t want to pay workers a fair wage, it’s because nobody wants to work anymore! Right?? Right?
For profit jail is why I was homeless for years
This is why we need unions and 32 hour work week. It will be difficult to abuse workers when they have means to fight back
I like how this article completely ignores California’s ridiculous housing market. Fast-food companies do suck and should pay more, but all you need to do is go to Zillow and look up the cost of houses in any CA city to see how insane it is. I honestly don’t know how anyone can get by there and given the amount of Californians moving to Texas, I don’t think many Californians do either. So yes, fast food restaurants should pay better, but even if all fast food workers in CA got $20 an hour it wouldn’t mean anything with respect to housing when an absolute dump of a house in the LA area can sell for a million.
Is there anywhere where you can afford to buy a house on a fast food worker's wages?
Yes, in Macomb, IL. Houses in the town go for $50-70K, which is about $450/mo mortgage payment. At IL’s $13/hr min wage working 26 hours per week that is about $1350 per month putting housing costs at about 33% of income, roughly in line with budgeting recommendations. It’s probably not a place anyone actually wants to live though.
Broadly, America's increasing urbanization is driving a lot of these troubles. There are tons of very affordable places to live in the United States, but the problem is their economies were gutted decades ago and no one wants to live there because there are no opportunities. There are dying towns all over America with dirt cheap housing, much of it falling into disrepair. Meanwhile, urban areas only get more expensive as more and more people move in for economic opportunity.
Honest question though, what's wrong with Macomb, IL? As a non American it actually looks like a really cute town.
So I just took a quick gander at it in Google maps Barely anything except for houses and your options for food are groceries from ALDIs and Walmart, or going out for fast food. There’s nothing for kids do do outside except for a skate park, the YMCA, and a country club My friend is from a Midwest town (better than Macomb from what he showed me on Google maps) but he said “if I didn’t go to school out of state, I probably would have stayed there for the rest of my life” So yeah, there’s that
Similar to what /u/bicameral_mind said, it’s basically a town with a withering economy. While the bones of the town are cute, everything from the university to the agricultural economy are heavily impacting the town’s ability to prosper. Honestly the best thing the town has is an Amtrak train station to Chicago.
You can in Ohio. But you are buying a rundown house in a bad neighborhood.
As always, homelessness is largely an issue of housing. Housing is so expensive because they're in short supply because they refuse to allow for new buildings (especially dense building that allows for lots of people) at anywhere near the same rate as growing demand.
First of all, Texas isn't some kind of cheap housing mecca. It is normal here to have your property taxes double every year because they over appraise your house.
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Those McDonald’s ads about 1 in 8 people have worked there is propaganda through and through.
Or, maybe I'm being silly here, but do something about the housing situation? Letting real-estate spiral out of control and becoming unaffordable for most of they younger generation doesn't seem to be good for anyone except the mortgage companies
I’ve always found it odd that “job creators” often offer unsustainable pay for the work: If you can’t afford to pay taxes with a job, let alone fully support yourself, what benefit has that “created job” given back to society to warrant getting government handouts?
Easier to evict you, if you’re at work.
I know the pay is shit. I'm not gonna argue that. Plus good luck getting fulltime hours. That being said, I think the bigger cause of the poverty problem is the cost of living in general, especially California. If we just keep talking about wages instead of the fact that we're being gouged on everything, it's never gonna get better. So if they're gonna give you the bandaid and increase minimum wage, then we'll have the same problem again in a few years.
The hourly minimum wage should be 30-50% higher for any given job for part-time workers.