The Unfair Treatment of McDonald’s Workers How would you describe the workers at any McDonald’s restaurant? Nice? Pretty? Happy? These attributes may describe these worker’s looks, but what you don’t see is these workers being treated extremely unethically. Many McDonald’s workers work very long hours, but even though they work so hard, they barely get any money. The McDonald’s corporation should treat their workers in their restaurants better, by making their workers work shorter shifts, and paying them more money. One reason McDonald’s treats their workers badly is that they make each of them work very long and hard. Firstly, each McDonald’s worker works long shifts each day they come to the restaurant. Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson, …show more content…
To begin, McDonald’s doesn’t like to pay their workers more than they need to. This was proven when Schlosser and Wilson said, “Whenever members of Congress try to raise the minimum wage...the fast-food industry always fights hard against any increase,” (65). Because McDonald’s keeps pushing to lower minimum wage, they don’t want to pay their workers a lot, and that means the workers don’t get paid the amount they should for how much they work. To add on, McDonald’s workers keep protesting for minimum wage to raise to $15 an hour. Heesun Wee, a praised journalist, expresses that, “McDonald's employees were among hundreds of fast food workers who were protesting...and pushing for a national minimum wage of $15 an hour...the protests included low-wage employees who work in home care, child care, airports, retail and as adjunct professors.” Because the protests have started, McDonald’s workers have realized that they haven’t been paid fairly for how much they work. Raising the legal amount would let McDonald’s pay their workers barely the legal amount, but the workers would get the money they deserve for all their hard work. Without a doubt, McDonald’s workers deserve a high pay raise considering how long and hard they …show more content…
Stereotypical fast food workers are teenagers, because most workers at fast food restaurants, especially McDonald’s, are teens. For instance, “Teenagers open the fast-food outlets in the morning, close them at night, and keep them going in between,” (Schlosser and Wilson 60). Most teens work in fast-food, and since they don’t need the money as much as adults, they can be worked hard to see how life is like in the real world in a real job, and not entirely need the money. However, not every single McDonald’s worker is a teen. “Jefferson—the [30 year old]...earns $7.25 an hour, and [is] among hundreds of fast food workers in dozens of U.S. cities,” (Wee). Because Jefferson isn’t a teenager, he shows that not every fast food worker in the U.S. is a teenager, and should not be paid like one. In addition, most fast food workers have a child to take care of, and children “cost” a lot of money. For example, “CEPR analysis also found that more than 1 in 4 fast food workers have a child. For what it's worth, it costs about $245,000 to raise a kid,” (Cohn). Since 1 in 4 fast food workers have a kid, and it takes $245,000 to raise a kid, McDonald’s workers need to pay their workers more. That is about 34,000 hours of working at McDonald’s. At 10 hours a day, they would need a lot more money to raise their kid, and also to take care of themselves.
Chapter one examines the various occupations at McDonalds's. Barbara Garson finds that most workers here tend to dislike their jobs. Due to the tremendous amount of stress created by automated systems such as timers and computer generated productivity statistics McDonald's has a high turn over rate in employment.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/13/news/companies/mcdonalds- wage-theft-class-action/>. Hsu, Tiffany, ed., pp. 113-117. Nearly 90% of fast-food workers allege wage theft, survey finds. " The Los Angeles Times.
One of the first thing Schlosser address is work-related injuries. Schlosser states that more than “200,000 [tennagers] are injured on the job” (Schlosser 122). To the reader, this may be a large number, but in retrospect, it’s actually tiny. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, a report regarding workplace accidents in 1998 showed that a total of 5.9 million injuries was reported. In comparison, 200,000 only makes up 3.4% of the nationwide injuries making fast food restaurants relatively safe in that aspect. Schlosser misleads his audience by failing to give it a sense of scale or magnitude. Next, Schlosser concludes that due to the increased job opportunities for teenagers, as a result, fast food restaurants had become a target for robbers and other violent crimes. Schlosser backs up his statement through extreme examples of robbery cases and a few obscure statistical reports. First Schlosser lists numerous extreme examples of violent crime cases that resulted in a homicide. “A former cook… became a fast food serial killer, murdering two workers… three workers…” (Schlosser 127). Schlosser hopes that these examples will appeal to the emotions of the reader, in order to persuade that fast food restaurants had become a hub for violent crimes. While he lists many examples of this, these are individual cases that resonate a rather extreme case. Schlosser uses these example to visualize to the reader, that this is how most robberies end up when it isn't the case. The use of pathos in these examples exaggerate the problem beyond the actual scope. While this may be effective, it fails to provide complete transparency between the author and the audience. The statistical reports Schlosser offers are outdated, ones like “ In 1998, more
We are appalled by the facts presented and we think that it’s not right anymore. The author wants us to see the truth behind the working conditions and feel like they are unacceptable. I feel as though we should protest the laws in place now that enable the dangerous conditions of these workplaces. As mentioned before, the “OSHA Reform Act” should be repealed because it prohibits OSHA from being able to inspect the factories. I think this is unacceptable and unethical because the act was put in place so factories do not lose money. Also, the rules in place at fast food restaurants, such as being trained before starting the job, should be more brutally enforced to ensure the workers’ safety. When I worked at a restaurant, the manager sometimes slacked on executing the rules so I didn’t know much about the job. I worked in a pizza restaurant that used cornmeal on the pans so the dough didn’t stick. When the cook took the pizza out of the oven, the cornmeal would fall on the floor making it slippery, but the manager never explained how to clean this up. Because of this, I would always slip on the piles of cornmeal while getting a pizza. Instead of owners and managers of fast food restaurants being worried about getting workers on the job more quickly, I think they should take their time explaining the job more carefully to prevent injury in the long
Fast-food workers have been protesting for a minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour and the freedom to unionize. The workers have organized numerous protests this year. During the protests they have walked out and chanted slogans regarding their pay. The main fast-food companies that are effected is McDonald's and Burger King. They both have stated that they will not press charges and indeed are allowing the workers to return. These workers that are participating in the strike doesn’t represent the majority of the fast-food employees. The people participating in the strike are not only youths but adults and elders as well. Due to the countries low employment rate many of these workers are supporting a family or other dependents. This is where most of the fast-food workers are getting their motivation to protest this industry. Unfortunately, many Americans are questioning the negative economic effects of their proposed wage and their lack of worthiness to receive that big of a pay raise. However, I believe that with some adjustment and research we can find a way to make everyone happy. My solution advises that we support Obama’s nine dollars an hour minimum wage proposal. It will give the fast-food workers financial support, release the burden of the taxpayer’s assistance, and keep inflation balanced.
McDonald’s workforce consist of 73 percent women and people of color making, 43 percent of them are franchise staff and 55 percent are suppliers; additionally, the company has two stores opening everyday in China (Singh, 2010). Furthermore, Lee and Kye-Sung (2000) states 49 percent of McDonald’s total revenue comes from the international market. Gibison (2008) states in order for McDonald’s to reach and increase consumers from diverse backgrounds and different cultures the company tailor its menu by added specialty food for different countries and cultures. An example is the company...
A new McDonalds was then opened a few blocks down and all crew members that signed union cards weren’t hired. (Schlosser 77) Fast food industries are ignoring and covering up the problems of their employees which is a result of work abuse. The managerial industrial workers and employees should be able to come together through unionization to address the problems and wishes of what employees are speaking about. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, McDonald’s workers were creating unions across the
McDonalds over the years has defended its unethical practices and those of their franchisees, they have been slapped with numerous lawsuits for various violations w...
Presently, workers in the fast food and minimum wage jobs seek respect and an increase in wages as it is a sector of the food industry that is underrepresented by unions. As cost of living increases in cities nationwide and the government subsidizes underpaid employees with welfare funds, organizations such as Real Food Real Workers and the Fight for $15 are demanding a raise in the minimum wage, particularly for food workers. Similarly to the food workers at UNC Chapel Hill, many minimum wage workers in the fast food industry are women and minorities, sectors of the labor pool already marginalized by wage disparity. The Fight for 15 movement has recently gained momentum in raising the minimum wage to $15 in California, New York, Seattle and the District of Columbia, and this year Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington state voted to increase the minimum wage as well. In the 21 states where the minimum wage is still as low as $7.25, s minimum wage increase movement should partner with other organizations from outside labor unions such as women 's rights organizations and organizations similar to the BSM, including mass participation of solidarity with college campuses, to make a substantial statement about their work
The consistently good tasting and high quality food that McDonald’s delivers on a global scale daily can be credited to the level of training McDonald’s employees receive.
I only saw two of the staff members behind the counter working. They were both young girls around 20 years old. They both had similar features they were both wearing the same McDonalds outfit which consisted of a black shirt, pants and hat. They both had their hair in ponytails which came out the back of the McDonalds black baseball cap. The cash registers they had was brand new since they could actually touch the screen. I did not see a manager but the boy who was making the burgers was a young Black male also in his 20’s who had a black shirt as he was sliding the burger onto the metal trays. The janitor here also wore the black uniform and was constantly cleaning the restaurant with the standard blue mop bucket.
However, quality is not fully valued by these points. In fact, McDonald’s operates with a consistent quality product. It can be determined by supervising the operations of any McDonalds’ restaurant. The company has certain standards of cooking dishes, if it is volume oriented and each customer impact on product is not so high, McDonalds pertains to the top-quality operation. On the other hand, McDonalds doesn’t compromise its consumers’ comprehension about quality. From the whole history of the company, it is known that this restaurant has gone through the big quantity of quality inspections in all countries, where its restaurants are located. Evidently, they have credible and verified suppliers. Moreover, McDonalds has a special Quality Assurance team that controls the quality of the product at all stages of production. (Vignali, 2001)
It has been estimated that one out of eight workers at some point of their career worked at McDonald's. Today there are approximately 3.5 million fast food workers and they constitute the largest group of the minimum wage earners in the country. According to Schlosser, "the only Americans who consistently earn a lower hourly wage are migrant farm workers ." "Fast Food Nation" is the story of the postwar America. Fast food industry has pushed the homogenization of our society. The author is very convincing in making his arguments and supports them with a wide variety of examples. It is impossible to disagree with what he is saying because the evidence in support to his statements is around us.
At McDonald’s, the surroundings are quite different from those at Jake’s. When dining in, people are seated at small booths. The tables are not big enough for everything so tables my have to be moved together, people may have to sit apart or some food may have to be left in the bag. Sometimes there are greasy floors. Unlike Jake’s, McDonald’s customers are usually in a rush. They come in order their food and sto...
In America, many are not aware of the inequalities that exist in the Food Service. The food service sector has at least 125,951 companies and approximately 12 million employees with almost 7 million foreigners. This sector includes individually owned restaurants, mid-priced chains, quick service (fast food), hotels, and beverage establishments. Food service plays a major role in institutional establishments like schools, hospitals, prisons and meals on wheels. They cater to the tastes of their particular customers and are often leaders of food innovation. In the food service, we find: bartenders, wait staff, hosts, busboys, chefs, cooks, managers, and dishwashers .The food service workers perform a variety of customer service, food preparation and cleaning tasks, all that which are very important to keep a business running. More concerning , some of the major working conditions that foodservice workers face with daily is no health benefits and significantly low wages. These employees working in the food industry make it possible for millions of people to enjoy food in restaurants but are not being treated or appreciated fairly.