The brutal reality of working in fast food after Trump’s moment at McDonald’s

On October 20, Republican Party candidate and former President Donald Trump held a photo op at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. key battlefield condition where both he and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are trying to woo voters in the final weeks before Election Day, scheduled for November 5. Trump appeared to be making french fries and serving customers passing through the drive-thru window.

“It’s so much fun, I could do it all day.” Trump said after handing the bag over to the customer. “I wouldn’t mind this job.”

There are about 3.6 million fast food workers in the US., who earn an average of $30,110 per year. Many people took to social media to express their frustration with Trump dressing up as the works of millions of Americans.

Trump took questions from the press through a drive-thru window, although he did not say whether he would support raising the federal minimum wage when asked. On Tuesday, Harris said for the first time that she would support raising the minimum wage to $15.

According to HuffPostHarris also stated that she supports a $15 federal minimum wage during her 2020 presidential campaign.

“At least $15 an hour, but we’ll cooperate with Congress, right? This is something that goes through Congress.” Harris said.

According to the US Department of Labor, federal minimum wage it has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2009.

How We hope that it has been reported earlier this week, myths about who works in fast food portray the industry as an after-school job performed by part-time teenagers. However, data published by Draft National Labor Law shows that 70% of fast food workers are 20 years old or older, and in 2021, less than a third were between the ages of 16 and 19.

Workers say their job involves more than just “flipping burgers”; instead, they must balance multiple tasks and provide customer service, often for low wages while managing bad working conditions and operates in understaffed locations.

“Why do so many people choose to put up with this? Because some choices aren’t really choices, Emilia Guendelsbergerjournalist and former fast food employee, he wrote on Vox in 2019. “In my experience, most people are willing to make enormous sacrifices to keep their children safe and happy. In a country with a moth-eaten social safety net, health care tied to employment, and little difference in job quality between working at McDonald’s, Burger King, or Walmart, corporations have long since figured out that workers will put up with almost anything if it means keeping their jobs.”

2023 California Nonprofit Report Economic Round Table found that the fast food industry has the highest percentage of workers living in poverty, which the researchers found is due to low wages and difficulty obtaining full-time employment. In California alone, 1 in 17 homeless people work in fast food, according to the report.

Cyanna Petersen22 years old is a Sonic drive-in server in Oklahoma making $7.75 an hour. She usually works 36 hours a week, although her hours were recently reduced after taking two weeks off for emergency surgery. Since then, she has only worked 16 hours a week.

“I went from 36 hours a week to 16 hours a week, but considering my paycheck, that’s not enough pay. Really not. There was no way. I have foster children and they (managers) still didn’t understand what was happening,” Reckon said.

Petersen’s daily tasks include preparing orders, taking payments and delivering food to customers. Although her position includes tips, she says it’s not much.

“If it’s a coupon day or a promotional day, the most I’ll make that day is about $9,” she said. Petersen said she understands customers are trying to save money and may not have extra money to offer, but the situation is making her worse financially.

“I can’t survive this. I really can’t,” she said.

Physical and emotional violence at work

The creation of “Karen” the stereotype has become a household meme describing (usually) middle-aged white women who display entitlement and often racism in fits of rage. These viral videos gained popularity in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemicand often present verbal and sometimes

But Karen-like behavior is more than just a meme – fast food workers experience outbursts from customers in the real world. This was revealed by a 2021 study by Black Box Intelligence, a restaurant industry analytics company 60% of restaurant workers have experienced emotional abuse and lack of respect from customers, with 78% saying this had an impact on their mental health.

In November 2021, McDonald’s workers across California staged a strike against unsafe working conditions. Jasmina Alfaro, who worked at a McDonald’s in Los Angeles, he told the Los Angeles Daily News. about the violence she experienced at work.

“We were robbed at gunpoint, beaten, bitten and threatened just for trying to do our job,” Alfaro said. “It was only after we staged a protest at our store that management provided a safety solution. But it’s not enough.”

Petersen said her underage co-worker recently had to press charges against a drunk customer who was harassing her.

“It’s not normal for a weirdo to come in, but maybe it happens every other month,” she said, adding that everyone in the industry has encountered similar situations.

She told Reckon she urges people to be kind to employees because “you never know what they’re going through.”

“I’ve had a customer apologize to me for being rude a few times because of my ‘kill him with kindness’ attitude and I always forgive him because we all have our days and I completely understand that,” Petersen said. “Nowadays, most (apologies) don’t apologize, which makes this job suck even more.”

Unions, protests and legal protection of fast food workers

As reports of workplace violence and wage theft mounted, fast food workers began organizing for change. Their efforts have led to significant victories, particularly in California, where new regulations are transforming the industry.

The rise in violence against workers has sparked a movement to introduce legal protections to keep workers safe, and California has been at the center of the fight.

During the pandemic, fast food workers in Los Angeles County were at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, faced greater difficulties in working conditions and did not receive the protections they deserved, according to a 2022 report by the commission. UCLA Labor Center.

Half of fast food workers surveyed in the report said they had experienced verbal abuse, and a third said they had faced threats, racial slurs or assault. Additionally, almost two-thirds of workers have experienced wage theft, and more than half have faced health and safety risks at work and 43% have been injured. Wage theft occurs when employers withhold money earned, such as wages or breaks.

“Fast food workers have shown up every day of the Covid-19 pandemic, risking their lives to keep our stores open and our communities fed.” Angelica Hernandez, a McDonald’s employee in Los Angeles, told UCLA. “The companies we work for have called us essential, but this report shows they believe we are disposable and have decided it is worth keeping us in unsafe and unsanitary conditions to ensure higher company profits.”

In response to years of unfair terms, the industry began to merge. in February Fast food workers in California have formed a first-of-its-kind minority union representing hundreds of employees at McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr. and Subway. The California Fast Food Workers Union It lists its goals as raising the minimum wage by 3.5% over the next three years and establishing policies to ensure workers work enough hours to support themselves.

In September 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation into law raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour and created Fast Food Council so that employees can influence the setting of policies regarding working conditions and occupational health and safety standards.

A year later, the governor’s office reported that there were more fast food jobs in the state than ever before, including 11,000 new jobs created in the four months after the bill was signed into law.

“What’s good for workers is good for business, and as California’s fast food industry continues to thrive each month, our workers are finally getting the wages they deserve. “Despite those who have spread lies about how this will doom the industry, the California economy and workers are once again proving them wrong,” Newsom said in August 2024 statement.

Opposition to the increase warned that rising wages would trickle down to customers.

“Every day, restaurant closures, employee layoffs and reduced hours, and rising food prices for consumers make headlines,” spokesman for the International Franchise Association said the socialist magazine Jacobin several months after entry into force.

Report by Harvard University published on October 9 concluded that raising California’s minimum wage had no unintended consequences for staffing, scheduling, or wage theft, and Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley found that menu prices increased only 3% to 7%, the equivalent of 15 cents on a $4 burger.

Starbucks workers also fought to form unions across the country. According to its website, Starbucks Employees Union now represents 500 stores and over 10,500 employees since opening the first store in Buffalo, New York, voted to form a trade union in 2021.

According to CNBCthe newest store to unionize, based in Bellingham, Washington, recently sent a letter to the company’s new CEO, Brian Niccolexplaining the reason for organizing.

“Starbucks’ ultimate success in recovery depends on us, the baristas, having the support we need to do our job well so we can keep customers happy and coming back to Starbucks.” they wrote.