By Andrew White
Burger King may have only recently ditched its 40-year-old “Have it your way” slogan but its workers are just finally starting to see how those words feel as the movement to increase fast food worker wages is gaining impulse through the country. If successful then fast food workers will finally have it their way.
With Governor Cuomo as a catalyst, New York State will incrementally increase the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 an hour (the first time any state has set the minimum at that amount) and over six years elsewhere in the state. It will apply to some 200,000 employees at large chain restaurants. So far, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and the California cities of Oakland and Berkeley have approved incremental increases that will ultimately take their minimum wage to $15 an hour, or about $31,200 a year.
Twenty one states along with Washington D.C. have increased their minimum wage this year, and some cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, have approved increases to $15 and hour, to be worked in over time.
A wage survey conducted by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a fast food employee is the poorest paid of any worker in the country. The medium pay for fast food workers is hardly 9 dollars an hour. Many, however, make closer to the $8.75 hourly minimum wage. This averages out to about $15,000 a year, which is below the federal poverty level for a family of two.
Immovable on the issue of livable wages, fast food workers are adamant about getting their point across, that better pay is a must. Junior Paige, 23, worked for Burger King for five years had initially made $7.25 an hour and toward the end of his tenure, his wage increased to a little over $9. “$9.50 is not enough for anyone to live in New York City,” Paige told me. “In this city, $15 isn’t enough. They may give $15 an hour but what the owners will tell the GM’s to cut the hours. You’ll most likely only be working 15 hours a week, that’s how they will balance it out.”
Because fast food workers aren’t making enough, sometimes it is imperative that they seek financial aid from government run organizations.
NELP researchers utilized data from government programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and crosschecked the data with worker demographic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
They used publicly obtainable data about the fast food industry, like how many front-line workers each restaurant employs, coupled with the University of California-Berkeley/UI study. The Berkeley/UI study found that 52 percent of families of front-line fast food workers – specified as non-managers working more than 11 hours a week and an upwards of 27 weeks per year – depend on at least one government assistance program.
Often times, taxpayers are footing the bill when workers making just minimum wage cannot afford to do so themselves. According to an assessment by the National Employment Law Project taxpayers are dropping roughly $1.2 billion a year to help supplement worker wages at McDonalds. The organization used estimated figures from a study by University of California-Berkeley and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on just how many fast food employees depend on public assistance programs like food stamps and Medicaid — for its analysis. Collectively, low wages at the top 10 biggest fast food chains cost taxpayers about $3.8 billion per year, NELP found. In 2014 these companies earned a sum of $7.44 billion in profits, paid $52.7 million to their highest-paid executives and distributed $7.7 billion in dividends and buybacks.
Workers will be directly affected by a potential increase but owners will also see a modification to how business is conducted. The rule could cause business owners to change their business practices to avoid the higher minimum wage.
“It was rough with just the one store. We had to close it down,” said Shawn Perkins, co-owner of Brooklyn Burger and Brew Co. in Bed- Stuy. “Workers were paid a livable wage but some aspects of the business had to be compromised.”
An owner who already has 25 stores may choose not to expand. If subjected to the requirement, an owner could install iPads at the counters to take orders instead of breathing, wage-earning humans. An owner could also buy food that is already arranged by an outside vendor (who wouldn’t have to pay the higher wage) and hire fewer workers in the kitchen.
In a seemingly feasible manor management can increase wages and still stay afloat. Take Detroit-area fast food eatery Moo Cluck Moo, who already gained notoriety for paying its workers $12 an hour before it became a nationally divisive issue. They plan to raise its starting hourly wage to $15 beginning October 1, the Daily Beast reports. The restaurant’s co-founder Brian Parker interpreted his philosophy behind giving workers more than the state mandated-minimum wage of $7.40 an hour.
“The number one investment is human capital,” he told HuffPost Live. “We are investing in the process, in better foods, better quality, better service and better people.”
As a smaller company Mr. Parker’s business archetype differs from those of fast food goliaths, meaning it may be hard for the likes of McDonald and Wendy’s to take on a similar policy. Even so, paying employees well works for Moo Cluck Moo and has no direct affect on business. Mr. Parker’s goal is to open more stores nationwide.
The push for a higher wage has become much more urgent recently due to many of the jobs that were created in the wake of the Great Recession pay less than those that succeeded them. According to a study produced by the National Employment Law Project, as of last June, there were 2.3 million more workers with jobs paying less than $13.33 an hour than before the recession. On Nov. 10th, tens of thousands of employees and supporters took part in rallies one thousand cities across the nation, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Pittsburg. They picketed on the streets and sidewalks of their cities, wearing matching shirts, raising hand made signs as well as verbal expression, calling to action, to lift families up and earn a livable wage.
Dissimilar to the previous nine protests over the last three years, this particular occurrence targets politics keenly. These rallies appeared alongside City Halls and one also appeared near the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee a few weeks back. Mayor de Blasio showed his support for the initiative during a demonstration that was held in Brooklyn stating the importance of $15 wage being the minimum statewide. Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton recently said she supports a $12 federal pay floor while her competition Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley support a $15 minimum. They summon the issue as a major factor in decreasing the increasing gap between the rich and poor.
As the fight for higher wages progresses, its political influence has become irrefutable and has attracted the attention of the presidential nominees. ” Workers have banned together to form an agency that they believe will aid them in the push for higher wage, known as The Fight for $15. Candidates gearing up for the 2016 elections across the country should take note,” Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement supporting the “Fight for $15” protests.
Fast food workers have found a likely supporter in Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. “What you are doing and what workers across the United States are doing, you are having a profound impact, ” he told them as reported by MSNBC news. Sanders noted that San Francisco and other cities have increased their minimum wage to $15 as a result of the group’s efforts, adding, “Now we have to finish the job.”
For years, President Obama has been trying to get a phased-in higher federal minimum, however, congressional Republicans have been especially opposed to the proposition. Now, as the battle inches into presidential election territory, presidential contenders commonly have been falling into sequence with their party’s stance. For example, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton tweeted Tuesday: “Fast-food, home care, child care workers: Your advocacy is changing our country for the better. #Fightfor$15 –H”
Fight For $15 started in 2012 with a fast-food employees strike in New York City and has since grown into a broader economic justice protest movement, including a deep range of low-wage workers, from Wal-Mart cashiers to home health care aides and adjunct professors at universities. During the last three years, the movement has seen incitement globally, backed by millions of dollars from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is one of America’s largest labor unions.
Seemingly a quixotic effort when it began following Occupy Wall Street, the Fight for $15 has achieved some meaningful goals since then, as well as adding hope to workers during this long process.
“Fight for $15 came along and shed some light on a dark situation,” said Magda Kayling, an associate who works with the initiative. “You actually feel like things can change and we are working really hard toward that.”