Most people don’t take their French fries with a side of social justice. But the next time you enter a fast-food restaurant, take a second to think about the woman frying your fries or the man sweeping around your feet. They likely can’t afford the meal you just sat down to enjoy.
Last week, the City Council held a hearing on working conditions in the fast-food industry. What it revealed is troubling: Fast-food restaurants are flourishing in New York City, but wages in the industry have remained pitifully low and stagnant. Despite the fact that the fast-food business grew at 17 times the rate of other business over the past decade, most workers are still making somewhere around minimum wage, which in New York state is $7.25 an hour.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that’s too little to survive in one of the world’s most expensive cities. And when workers suffer, our communities suffer.
The workers who testified last week told heartbreaking stories about having to make tough choices between paying for rent, child care and health care despite busting their butts, doing overtime and taking more than one job.
When workers don’t have money in their pockets, we all suffer. Our communities are short-changed, and the economy gets dragged down. No money means no shopping—no new clothes, no movies, no nights out with their families. And without that, our neighborhoods can’t prosper.
Not only is that not right—it’s only half the story. As it turns out, the city’s most underpaid workers are also the most exploited. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is currently investigating reports that show a whopping 84 percent of fast-food workers are victims of wage theft. Almost half of the workers said managers had illegally taken money off their paychecks. Others reported being forced to work hours off the clock, getting paid late and even having their paychecks bounce.
When workers have tried to change their circumstances, the fast-food industry has responded with union busting and misinformation. They’ve told the public that if the minimum wage is raised or if fairer conditions are implemented, they’ll have to lay people off. That’s not true.
Fast-food companies can afford to pay their workers a living wage. Even as the recession decimated the American workforce and hit Blacks and Latinos particularly hard, fast food saw its best years. The number of fast-food restaurants in New York has doubled since 1999, but our communities saw none of the benefits of that growing industry.
At a local McDonald’s, two Happy Meals with apple slices plus a Big Mac meal for a single mom would cost almost three hours of her work at minimum wage. That leaves five hours to earn a day’s rent, a MetroCard, a babysitter and god forbid an emergency doctor’s visit.
When workers can’t afford the food they make or other basic needs, taxpayers are forced to subsidize their inadequate paychecks, and ultimately, the middle class suffers.
Why should a $200-billion-a-year industry get so much public assistance? It shouldn’t, and thankfully, people are starting to stand up.
From Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Chicago to the five boroughs of this great city, workers are saying enough is enough. They’re walking out and striking. They’re calling on their employers to pay them $15 an hour and let them organize without the threat of losing their jobs.
These are reasonable, realistic and economically important demands. I encourage anyone reading this to join their fight, and I encourage leaders in the fast-food industry to feel the groundswell and give people the money and change they deserve.