Joseph Williams, a journalist out of work, took a job in retailing, and now tells why it was eye-opening for him in an article in Atlantic magazine.
NYT Columnist: Minimum Wage, Maximum Outrage
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/opinion/minimum-wage-maximum-outrage.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
By Charles Blow, The New York Times
April 17, 2004
No one should ever endure the kind of economic humiliation that comes with working a full-time job and making a less-than-living wage.
There is dignity in all work, but that dignity grows dim when the checks are cashed and the coins are counted and still the bills rise higher than the wages.
Most people want to work. It is a basic human desire: to make a way, to provide for one’s self and one’s loved ones, to advance. It is that great hope of tomorrow, better and brighter, in which we can be happy and secure, able to sleep without hunger and wake without worry.
But it is easy to see how people can have that hope thrashed out of them, by having to wrestle with the most wrenching of questions: how to make do when you work for less than you can live on?
Click on the column
“Wage Theft” called Nickel-and-Diming
Domestics Stories from Overseas
Internationally, domestic workers tell stories that seem all too much alike:
They Call it Wage Theft
Huffington Post column on a Fast Food Forward poll concerning work without pay:
Posted: 04/11/2014
Before she got fed up and quit last month, it wasn’t uncommon for Darenisha Mills to keep working after her shift ended at the McDonald’s in Pontiac, Mich., where she was a cashier.
“They’re asking you to clean the bathrooms, sweep the lobby, run the register,” the 26-year-old told The Huffington Post, “but they don’t pay you anything for the time you work over.”
The formal name for that is wage theft, which occurs when an employer withholds pay rightfully earned by an hourly worker.
Voice of Restaurant Workers
How Much Would Higher Wages Cost Consumers?
There are disagreements about the answers, of course.
A study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center asked in 2005 by Amy Vassalotti about how will a proposed increase from $6.75 to $7.75 in the California minimum wage would impact the California economy?
This study assesses the potential economic implications for the private sector of an increase in the current California minimum wage. It finds that most establishments would face very modest cost increases, which entails only minor adjustments, if any, to the new minimum wage law. The study concludes that the cost increases to businesses are very modest, except in the accommodations and food services industry, which should be able to pass the cost increases on to consumers through price increases. Overall, the minimum wage increase should not affect the California economy negative ly, via loss of employment or business relocation out of the state.
In 2013, Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-OK, argued publicly a far different outcome as reported in the Huffington Post on Aug. 12.
By David Winograd, Huffington Post
Raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour could increase the price of a hamburger by about 438 percent, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) argued at a town hall meeting with constituents on Thursday, Think Progress reports.
“You guys wanna pay $20 for a hamburger at McDonald’s?” Mullin said. “If you wanna increase it, that’s great,” he added, “but what you’re gonna do is punish everybody along the way.”
How Big is the Fast Food Industry
These numbers are from Wikipedia
Business
In the United States, consumers spent about US$110 billion on fast food in 2000 (which increased from US$6 billion in 1970).The National Restaurant Association forecasted that fast food restaurants in the U.S. would reach US$142 billion in sales in 2006, a 5% increase over 2005. In comparison, the full-service restaurant segment of the food industry is expected to generate $173 billion in sales. Fast food has been losing market share to fast casual dining restaurants, which offer more robust and expensive cuisines.
Employment
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 4.1 million U.S. workers are employed in food preparation and serving (including fast food) as of 2010. The BLS’s projected job outlook expects average growth and excellent opportunity as a result of high turnover. However, in April 2011, McDonald’s hired approximately 62,000 new workers and received a million applications for those positions—an acceptance rate of 6.2%. The median age of workers in the industry in 2013 was 28.
More than Half of U.S. Fast Food Workers Receive Public Aid
News organizations took note when the Labor Center at UC Berkeley and economists at the Universtiy of Illinois released a new report showing that more than half of U.S. fast food workers are receiving some type of public assistance. Here is The Los Angeles Times story, followed by a link and excerpts to the report itself.
LATImes 10/15/2013
More than half of U.S. fast food workers on public aid, report says
By Alana Semuels
More than half of families of fast food workers receive some sort of public assistance, costing the nation $7 billion a year, according to a new report distributed by a group that has been pushing for union representation and higher wages for fast food workers.
Fast food workers earn an average of $8.69 an hour, and often work fewer than 40 hours a week, qualifying them for food stamps, Medicaid and tax credits, according to the report, written by economists at UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
10 Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage
AlterNet argues that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would create economic prosperity and put more money into the pockets of hard-working Americans. Please see:
WorkersWrite 