Could be worse. Could be pitchforks.
by digby
The news actually seems to be covering this. And covering it pretty fairly, too. I get the feeling that many of the TV News celebrities are genuinely shocked that so many people are working full time yet are still in poverty and having to get public assistance just to keep hearth and home together:
When you’re making eight bucks an hour, which is pretty typical in the fast-food industry, it’s tough to make ends meet.
And increasingly, the working poor are asking this question: Why am I living in poverty, even when I’m working full time?
That’s the message that thousands of fast-food workers rallying Thursday in about 100 U.S. cities — from Oakland to Memphis to Washington, D.C. — want heard. A living wage in big cities is closer to $14 an hour, and it jumps to about $20 an hour for an adult supporting a child.
The protests are part of a growing campaign backed by a coalition of advocacy groups, religious organizations and union organizers aimed at raising fast-food wages to $15 an hour.
At at time when the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy are also the lowest paid, the issue of income inequality is on the lips of leaders worldwide.
Amal Mimish, an organizer with Good Jobs Nation, registers protesters at the fast-food workers’ rally in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.Enlarge image
Amal Mimish, an organizer with Good Jobs Nation, registers protesters at the fast-food workers’ rally in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.From the remarks by Pope Francis a few weeks back to President Obama’s speech Wednesday, it’s clear that there’s growing unease about the divide between the haves and the have-nots.
And the image problem for the fast-food industry is exemplified by this online petition urging McDonald’s chief executive officer, Donald Thompson, to cancel his order for another corporate jet until he pays all his employees a decent wage.
According to the petition, McDonald’s just bought a $35 million luxury Bombardier jet for its corporate executives. Yet many of the company’s employees make so little that they rely on public assistance to get by.
“It’s not right to impoverish your employees while sailing above them at a rate of $2,500 an hour,” reads the petition started by the Campaign For America’s Future. “It’s immoral to do it with a taxpayer subsidy.”
In a recent study, economists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that 52 percent of fast-food workers rely on taxpayer-funded public assistance programs, such as food stamps or Medicaid.
“Taxpayers are subsidizing the low-wage model of these employers, who are making record profits in some cases,” says Dorian Warren, an associate professor at Columbia University who studies income inequality.
It’s not just fast food workers, either. A lot of office temps and retail workers and maids among others are also toiling for poverty wages in this country as the 1% hoovers up more and more of the wealth. If the owners are smart they’ll open their eyes and see that unless they want pitchforks, they’ll make some concessions now.
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