A major battle is taking place across America between the poor and the corporations that employ them at slave wages. A few months ago, fast-food workers staged another nationwide demonstration in 60 U.S. cities, including New York, Chicago and Detroit in the largest protest yet for higher wages.
Because companies like McDonald’s and Wal-mart don’t pay real living wages to their employees, taxpayers fund the food stamps and public assistance to employees working for these corporations, and this taxpayer funded assistance amounts to corporate welfare.
Taxpayers fund $7 Billion a year to help fast-food workers survive.
To suggest men and women don’t have to work these low paying jobs is both callused and ignorant, because for those without college degrees, in some areas of the country these low paying jobs are all that’s available in an economy that has never really emerged from the recession. In fact, it’s not just harder to get a job, it’s harder to get a good job.
As Zero Hedge points out, for many in the US, the recession never ended, we’re still in it… it feels like we’re still in it and it’s getting worse.
“For those with decent jobs, wages are rising, albeit slowly, and job security is the strongest it has been since before the recession. But many others – the young, the less educated and particularly the unemployed – are experiencing hardly any recovery at all.”
Now that public pressure for corporations to pay a decent wage has escalated, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart have gone to extremes to avoid a wage increase.
Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz points out that McDonald’s has a “McResource” line that helps employees and their families enroll in various state and local assistance programs. It exploded into the public when a recording of the McResource line advocated that full-time employees sign up for food stamps and welfare.
Ritholtz adds Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private sector employer, is also the biggest consumer of taxpayer supported aid, and in many states, Wal-Mart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients.
“They are also the single biggest group of food stamp recipients. Wal-mart’s “associates” are paid so little that they receive $1,000 on average in public assistance. These amount to massive taxpayer subsidies for private companies.”
McDonald’s Tells Employees To Return Holiday Gifts
“You may want to also consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did,” the McResource site reads, according to screengrabs that were posted on the website of “Low Pay Is Not OK,” a group that advocates for higher fast food wages.
“Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash,” the McResource presentation reportedly said.
Another tip from McResource supposedly tells employees to “Stop complaining. Stress hormones rise by 15% after 10 minutes of complaining.”
When contacted by Business Insider, McDonald’s defended the website.
“This is an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website by taking isolated portions out of context,” a spokeswoman writes in an email.
“The McResource website has helped countless employees by providing them with a variety of information and resources on topics ranging from health and wellness to stress and financial management.”
Walmart Holding Canned Food Drive For Its Employees
Think Progress notes that a Walmart in northeast Ohio is holding a holiday canned food drive for its own underpaid employees.
“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” a sign reads in the employee lounge of a Canton-area Walmart.
Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, says the drive is a positive thing. “This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he said.
Think Process adds that Walmart’s President and CEO, Bill Simon, recently estimated that the majority of its one million associates make less than $25,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line of $23,550 for a family of four.
“When the Washington DC city council passed a living wage bill requiring Walmart to pay workers a minimum of $12.50 per hour, the chain threatened to shut down its new stores if Mayor Vincent Gray didn’t veto the bill. Gray vetoed the bill.”
It’s Time To Change The Rules
Ritholtz suggests both McDonald’s and Wal-Mart are engaging in perfectly legal behavior, which means it is time to change those outdated rules.
The simplest solution is to raise the minimum wage, writes Ritholtz, because raising the minimum wage over a period of time will eliminate much of this corporate welfare.
Ritholtz makes two more suggestions:
1) Charge back the amount of public assistance any employee receives to the company he or she works for.
2) Guarantee every person in America a minimum salary. That is a proposal under discussion today in Switzerland.
“Regardless of your politics, we should get corporate welfare queens off of the public teat.”
Inquisitive foodie with a professional investigative background and strong belief in the organic farm to table movement. Author of Bad Seeds: A FriendsEAT Guide to GMO's.
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