If I ain’t rap ’cause I flipped burgers at [McDonalds], would you be ashamed to tell your friends you feelin’ me?
Fight for $15 is an organization where fast-food workers have come together to fight for fair wages and the right to form a union without retaliation. These food service workers work for corporations who are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support their families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation.
Fight for $15 got this image of a paycheck from a McDonald’s full-time employee in Wisconsin.
Below is the gross salary after 1 year for this employee: Would you be able to live on $13,811.18 for an entire year??
Syed Mikhail Hussain is fan of all things NYC and Hip Hop. Winner of the sperm race back in ’89. He does a weekly basketball podcast. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at @swishthis.
19 Comments
I understand $13,000 and some change is not enough to live on for anyone, but I also believe that a fastfood restuarant job is not a career. fast food jobs in my opinion are for high school and college students who are trying to go to school and get a carerre, but need some money for the time being. I just don’t understand why a corporation would pay top dollar for employees with no real skill but to flip burgers, clean tables, and pass out food. I know I am going to get a lotof backlash for this but it’s what I believe. If these employees want real money why not get a career at the corporate McDonald’s offices not the restuarant chains? Just my opinion.
I’m pretty sure corporations like McDonald’s give big incentives to stay. As a part time bagger at a grocery store, I was making minimum wage but received holiday pay and pay increases every year just like a normal full time employee. There’s not enough evidence here to tell a good story. It just states this person makes 13K. Am I supposed to feel sympathy?
How old is this person? Do we know if the person is in college? How long have they worked at McDonald’s? Do they live with their parents, or roommates? Does McDonald’s have a continued education program for all their employees? What other incentives does McDonald’s give to their employees? Seriously, how do can I deduct there is even a struggle or if McDonald’s corporation is just pure evil if 13k is what one employee made in one year? Tell me more
Smh… Respectfully. Felons need fair wages. Its hard for people to get a job and just bc they are working at ncdonalds does not mean they dont deserve decent pay. No matter what, if you put in 40 hours a week at any job you deserve way more than 13k in a year. If you make it through a year of being on time everyday and not missing more than 3 days in that year you deserve more than 13k in that year. You speak of getting a job at corporate?? Those people at corporate dont deal with the pressures of customer service and dealing with face to face interaction with customers daily. Just flipping a burger? 7/10 people flipping burgers would burn those burgers if faced with the pressure of cooking 100 orders in 5 minutes. You boast your fancy degrees but I garuntee you wouldnt make it at a fast food restaraunt for more than a week. Respect for those who make life so easy for you that you think they are meaningless pawns who do idle work.
Man you are a naive. First you start off saying that felons deserve fair wages. Where is that written? And if you are the felon prove to the world that you won’t go back to your criminal ways. No one, I repeat, NO ONE OWES YOU A DAMN THING!
The only way for that to happen is for them to work their way up to that point, and that’s not a given. I no longer work in that industry, but it’s not as simple as “just flipping burgers”. A job like that is more stressful and difficult than most who have never done it would believe, and the wage should reflect the labor that is put in.
In 2008, I lost my 47,000 a year corporate job. After a year of not being able to find another job, I accepted a Shift Manager position with Rally. For each shift I worked, I supervise staff, enforced rules, pushed hourly sales goals, did inventory, counted cashier tills, counted safe, made bank deposits, monitored equipment, generated hourly paperwork, processed food orders, trained staff, cleaned, monitored speed of service, cooked, worked cash registers, provided cash, responded to corporate coreslondence, handled customers complaints, and was required to stay if store was understaffed. Additional, I worked weekends, nights, and holidays. I made 8.00 per hour, It was much harder than my corporate positions.
Not everyone has the same mindset does that make them bottom feeders??just because someone is older then what u believe should be working in a restaurant job does that mean they are not worthy of better?? Nobody knows people situation or struggles nobody knows if certain people had careers and fell off and was unable to pick back up so they took a job to provide for thier family. Just because you feel only high school and college student should work restaurant jobs doesn’t make it so some people love what they do or do what they must to survive different struggles different stories with a mind set like yours is prime reason why people in restaurant job should get paid better because on a daily they are treated wrong looked at wrong or downed by simple minded people like you. Again I would rather see a grown person flip a patty then rob a bank to get by. So yes fair pay for everyone especially peor who have to on a daily encounter ignorance and ridicule without knowing a person.
You’re all idiots. Minimum wage needs to remain where it is. Gain a useful skill, contribute to society in a constructive manner. Don’t bitch and complain about the lemons life has handed you. Get up off your ass and make some fucking lemonade. There is absolutely no reason to raise it. I don’t see how anyone thinks that will fix anything.
I’m going to try to put this delicately, being a veteran of Afghanistan and making not a whole lot more than that, I really don’t have much sympathy. McDonald’s is not a career, neither is Burger King. Why on this sweet planet Earth do people believe that increasing the minimum wage to 15 or 20 dollars an hour is going to somehow magically solve poverty issues and miraculously pull everyone out of the shit? I have an interesting news flash for people, when everybody gets a pay raise, nobody does. That’s how this economy and inflation work. I have a friend who I know very well who happens to own his own welding shop. At any given time he is looking to bring on a bright new welder to train and teach. And he is more than willing to pay that welder upwards of 50 bucks an hour, because it is a SKILL. SKILLED labor is worth that much, but unskilled labor, i.e. Flipping fucking burgers at mcdonalds and dropping fries in the fryer at Burger King, is worth pretty much nothing, it is unskilled because anyone can do it; whereas welding is a very particular craft. Mcdonalds is meant for high school students to gain experience and to use as a stepping stone, not to settle for the burger flipping for the next 50 years. If we as a nation want a SKILLED work force, and believe me we do, why should we encourage and “incentivize” unskilled positions? Because people don’t want to work for their shit anymore, they just feel entitled to hand outs because they are gods gift to the planet earth? Work for your shit, take pride in your shit, don’t expect hand outs like a bum. Opportunity knocks all the damn time, but most folks won’t open their damn door for it because it’s dressed in blue jeans and looks like hard work. Nut the fuck up people, if I triaged and bandaged my friends in battle, got shot at, blown up, and tore up for a dollar more than minimum wage, you can suck it the fuck up and salt the French frys for 7 bucks. And if you’re tired of it, then go out and make yourself valuable. But until you are willing to make that change, don’t expect much, you’re all idiots. You’re not special, no one gives a shit whether or not you make it in this world, you are not entitled to anything. WORK HARD FOR WHAT YOU WANT AND QUIT YOUR INCESSANT FUCKING BITCHING.
I need a welding job bad I work for half that wears the shop at? this website’s f****** with my phone wont let me type right….. got a few years of TIG welding under my belt
I was a cna and yes I have lived off 13k a year. No way should a fast food worker ever made 15 an hr. I am now an LPN and I make 15 a hour. Fast food work is NOT a career .
You know i read all these comments and see nothing but ridicule Form everybody now i know mc donalds is not a skilled trade but how many of you could actually do what these people do day in and day out also 15 hr is a lil high for minimum wage but maybe rasing it to 10 hr would help them alot of people have no problem saying there job is so easy but then they want to get mad when they have to wait for there food or have a complaint that something is wrong with there order therefore there job cant be that easy because if it was there would be not wait times or incorrect orders or complaints from customers so dont knock it until you have done it or tried it
If you do the math they should have made More around 19000 for the year if they worked 40 hours a week. Ya 19000 still aint much but its more than 14000.
Yeah… Bitch about that when I made 12000 for the year. I work at a store doing everything but deli. Everyone has it hard. Not just fast food employee.
Actually working 40hrs a week for an entire year at your pay rate would yield over 18k.. It’s still not a ton of cash but how can you complain when you don’t have a full time job.?? Also might I suggest a second job or college since you aren’t working a full 40hr work week.. Millions of other Americans do it.. Why can you??
fast food shouldnt be a career it use to be the go to for teens and retirees and college kids now people want to try to live off of it? 15 dollars is for the supervisor or manager in training. 10 an hour is ok. again you shouldnt be in fast food as a career. get a skilled position somewhere or open ya own biz!!!!!
Here’s a thought. Don’t like what you are getting paid, then find another job. No one is forcing you to work there. Another thing you could do is get more education and qualifications so you get better paying jobs. Community Colleges are very affordable. Just because you work for a company doesn’t mean they owe you a living. Get off your lazy ass and earn your keep.
But to be fair, the said employee is obviously not working a full 40 hour week… Work your 40 & then I’ll feel sorry for you.
Everyone is forgetting one large thing. Raising the minimum wage to $15 even $20 is not going to help anyone. What do you think a meal at a fast food restaurant would increase to, probably from the current $5- $8 per person to $10- $15. The same would happen at every other store including walmarts and gas stations to offset the wage increase.