Pop quiz: What came first, the $0.99 cheeseburger, or the depressed wages?
Berkley — The fast-food industry costs American taxpayers nearly $7 billion annually because its jobs pay so little that 52 percent of fast-food workers are forced to enroll their families in public assistance programs, according to a report released today (Tuesday, Oct. 15) by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley
“People who work in fast-food jobs are paid so little that having to rely on public assistance is the rule, rather than the exception, even for those working 40 hours or more a week.”
Fast food is a $200 billion-a-year industry. The median wage for core front-line workers at fast-food restaurants nationally is $8.69 an hour. Only 13 percent of the jobs provide health benefits.
Infographic by Alissa Scheller for the Huffington Post
We can subsidize the very corporations that are cutting hours and benefits to avoid providing a living wage and healthcare to a workforce where “1 in 4 are parents, raising at least one child,” but we can’t raise the minimum wage and mandate that corporations with over 50 employees provide healthcare to their full-time workers? It’s a testament to the corporate propaganda that the latter is considered the socialist takeover of America.
We have seen the hideous face of socialism, and it looks like this:
Banksy: “Better Out Than In.”