ATLANTA — Recent protests by disgruntled fast food employees across the spectrum from McDonald’s to Taco Bell are fighting the meager wages and benefits they receive as fast food employees. Similar demonstrations have sprung up over the course of several years, but none have reached the global scope these protests have been able to achieve.
The main focal point of the protests involves the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which many employees argue is simply not enough to provide for themselves and their families. If one supports a family while on the minimum wage, which amounts to around $18,000 per year, that family is earning well below the poverty level of $23,000 per year.
Some have argued the protestors have aimed too high with their current demand to raise their pay up to $15 per hour. Fast food companies have brushed aside the $15 per hour suggestion, stating it would undermine profits, raise prices and disrupt their normal pattern of hiring.
The protests came to a head in recent days when over 100 McDonald’s employees, labor and clergy members were apprehended while protesting at the main company headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.
The protests have also ballooned dramatically overseas as foreign workers attempt to display their displeasure with their pay. In Japan, protesters are swarming over 30 prefectures demanding a wage increase to ¥1,500 (Chinese yen) per hour (close to $15 per hour.)
In some ways, these foreign workers may have a more significant impact on the calculus of major U.S. fast food companies than any American worker may have. This is true, mostly because in recent years many fast food companies have had to expand overseas, reaching untapped markets as profits in the U.S. continue their downward slide mainly due to a growing number of health conscious Americans.
Many service worker unions are also entering the mix, most notably the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations. These organizations are attempting to pave the way for fast food workers to unionize, a measure staunchly opposed by the companies.
Sinthoresp, a food and hospitality union in Brazil, has been attempting to bring litigation against McDonald’s over wage theft, pay at the poverty level and alleged mistreatment of pregnant workers.
The inability for workers to unionize serves as the main obstacle to any wage increase. However, there have been examples of unions outside the company’s host country persuading those businesses to allow their workers to consider forming a union. For example, Swedish unions helped persuade a Swedish security company to allow their American employees to unionize.
Among the din of screaming voices lies a larger debate about poverty not only in America, but around the world. Raising wages or not raising them brings about good and bad consequences.
Proponents of a wage increase claim it can lift many out of poverty and that any job loss resulting from a wage increase would be minimal.
Others claim it will do more harm than good, leaving millions without a job simply because the company cannot afford to hire more workers and lower profits, producing higher prices for consumers and inflicting a malaise on a slow to recover global economy.
One thing is for sure: many people are working full-time in America and abroad and simply cannot make ends meet.
Sources: TIME, The New York Times, The Guardian, LA Times, Bloomberg