Fast-food employees – cooks, cashiers and delivery workers – left their jobs today to protest for higher wages.
From fast-food giants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s, workers called on their employees to pay a living wage of $15 per hour and allow them to form unions without retaliation from employers.
The median wage of fast-food workers is just over $9 per hour, about $18,000 a year. That’s about $4,500 below the poverty income threshold level of $23,000 for a family of four, according the Census Bureau.
Employers have defended the low wages in the fast-food industry arguing that these jobs are stepping-stones to higher-paying managerial positions, as well as, opportunities to eventually own and operate a fast-food franchise, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
The truth is, the facts undercut these lies.
According to the NELP, while managerial, professional and technical occupations make up 31.1 percent of jobs throughout the U.S. economy, only 2.2 percent of jobs in the fast-food industry are managerial, professional or technical occupations.
In addition, franchise owners represent only 1.0 percent of all jobs in the fast food industry; huge financial assets required to own a franchise serve as major barriers, studies show.
