12 Fast Facts About today's Fast-Food Strike
Here are 12 things you should know about Thursday’s action.
1. If wages had kept pace with productivity gains, the minimum wage would be over $16 an hour.
Corporate profits have soared. Workers are producing more, but they’re not sharing in the rewards.
Productivity and
the minimum wage generally increased at the same rate from 1947 to
1969, during this country’s postwar boom years. Using a conservative
benchmark, economists Dean Baker and Will Kimball determined that the
minimum wage would be $16.54 today if it had continued to keep pace with
productivity.
The strikers are asking for $15 an hour.
(Source: Baker and Kimball, Center for Economic and Policy Research)
2. The average fast food worker makes $8.69 an hour.
2. The average fast food worker makes $8.69 an hour.
Many jobs pay at
or near the minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour. And an estimated 87
percent of fast food workers receive no health benefits.
(Source: UC Berkeley Labor Center)
3. The CEO of McDonald’s Corporation makes $13.8 million per year.
That’s a 237 percent pay increase over last year, when he was paid a “mere” $4.1 million. Presumably health benefits are also included.
(Source: USA Today)
4. McDonald’s cost the American taxpayer an estimated $1.2 billion in public assistance per year.
3. The CEO of McDonald’s Corporation makes $13.8 million per year.
That’s a 237 percent pay increase over last year, when he was paid a “mere” $4.1 million. Presumably health benefits are also included.
(Source: USA Today)
4. McDonald’s cost the American taxpayer an estimated $1.2 billion in public assistance per year.
In other words, taxpayer money is subsidizing this large corporation’s profits – at the expense of American workers.
That’s up 5 percent from the previous year.
(Source: McDonald’s Corporation)
6. The 10 largest fast food companies cost taxpayers an estimated $3.9 billion in government health assistance and $1.04 billion in food assistance.
6. The 10 largest fast food companies cost taxpayers an estimated $3.9 billion in government health assistance and $1.04 billion in food assistance.
Republicans are
demanding cuts to government health and food programs. With all the talk
of deficit reduction, it’s surprising that no one has pointed out that a
great way to lower expenditures would be by ending these backdoor
subsidies for highly profitable corporations.
They also paid out $7.7 billion in dividends. Meanwhile …
(Source: National Employment Law Project)
8. Fast food workers are more than twice as likely to be on public assistance.
8. Fast food workers are more than twice as likely to be on public assistance.
25 percent of
American workers receive some form of public assistance – which is a
disturbing figure itself. For fast food workers that figure was 52
percent.
And it’s not just part-time work that’s causing the problem. More than half of full-time fast food workers receive some form of public assistance.
(Sources: University of California, Berkeley/University of Illinois study; UC Berkeley Labor Center)
9. Most of the workers who would be affected by this wage change are adults.
9. Most of the workers who would be affected by this wage change are adults.
We also hear
that it’s not necessary to raise the minimum wage, especially for fast
food workers, because most of them are “kids” working a few hours each
week for pocket money. Think of this as the “malt shoppe” argument.
But it’s not
true. Most low-wage workers are adults. Nationally, adults make up 88
percent of the workers who would receive a raise if the minimum wage
were increased to $10.10 per hour. In locales as distinct as New York
State and Albuquerque, New Mexico, that figure rises to 92 percent.
(Sources: US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Fiscal Policy Institute, New Mexico Voices for Children/Fiscal Policy Project)
10. Over 7 million children live in minimum-wage households.
10. Over 7 million children live in minimum-wage households.
And many of
these workers are parents. Seven million children – nearly one American
child in ten – feels the effects of low wages.
66 percent of
low-wage workers are employed by organizations with 100 employees or
more. Thursday’s strikers aren’t targeting mom-and-pop operations.
They’re striking against some of America’s largest corporations.
How large?
McDonald’s employs 707,850 people. Yum! Brands (better known as Pizza
Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC) employs 379,449 people. Altogether these 10
companies employ 2,251,956 people.
The workforce
for these ten companies is greater than the populations of Nebraska,
West Virginia, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and
Wyoming, states which hold 28 seats in the United States Senate.
Shouldn’t these fast-food workers have a voice of some kind too?
There’s an easy-to-use website to help you find one. There’s also an online workers’ strike kit, for fast food workers who want to take action.
(Source: Low Pay Is Not OK)
(Source: Low Pay Is Not OK)
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