Wage inequality is gross.

So a friend posted a link on his facebook today and it was this site:

http://loypayisnotok.org/mcdonalds

It's a website that attacks fast-food companies for paying their employees low wages. Me being me, I had to investigate at least a little. I got intrigued and looked into McDonald's resource for helping people budget.

You can find it here: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/mcdonalds/documents/McD_Journal2.pdf 

The tool postulates that a hypothetical person would make $1105 from their first job and $955 from their second. The fact that there's a mention of a second job already sends flags for the lowpayisnotokay.org group and it does me too. Though I personally have two part-time jobs and I pick up a third job a couple to few times a month, I don't like the assumption that someone should HAVE to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Sure, to save a little extra for a big goal, I think it's not terrible to have to put in hard work. But to live? Just to live a simple life really ought to take one job.

I decided to break this number business down so we can get a more in-depth and more clear picture of the assumptions McDonald's makes with its "let's toss 'em out there" numbers.

First job: $1105
Second: $955

Monthly Net Income at: $2,060

Let's take the average pay of a "Crew Trainer" -someone who has been with the company long enough to grab at least a promotion and has a touch of responsibility. They make around $8.11 per hour (Ref 1).

Let's say this individual works at McDonald's "full-time", which is considered 40 hours a week. This puts each weekly earning at $324.40 for a $648.80 per two-week paycheck, assuming they're on a two-week pay-cycle like a lot of places are. Oh, but taxes!

So doing a little guess math on my paycheck (I'm a cashier), I get about 4.25% of my paycheck taken from me by the state of Colorado (approximately) and about 10% taken by our lovely federal government (again, approximations). Let's pretend, for fun, that the same basic math logic applies here (and they're approximations, but I think the numbers get the idea across. It's worth noting that I'm probably being pretty nice and giving here, veering on the side of the worker having more money than what they probably really get).

4.25% of 648.80 rounds out to $27.57

10% of 648.80 looks like $64.88

$648.80 minus both those numbers comes out to $556.35

Multiply that by two for the monthly income from job number one and we have: $1112.70.   Oh gosh! I forgot about FICA! Silly me. That's another 11% (or so?) taken out of each paycheck.

11% of 648.80 = 71.37 Let's take that out of each check for a $484.98 per check total.

Now the monthly looks a little more like: $969.96. Let's be nice and round that up to $970, shall we?

That still doesn't total the expected net income of the first job but, okay, it looks like the second job. So this just means that McDonald's is the second job, and all people work 40 hours per week at their second jobs right? Or you might also think "Well, why don't they work more hours at McDonald's?" A good number of people in other jobs work 50/60 hour work weeks, so why don't they?

I will gladly help you with that one. It's because most companies HATE paying overtime. It's a thing they tell their managers time and time again to avoid at all cost. If you've ever worked at the lower rungs of the ladder, you've probably been yelled at or threatened about clocking in the evil: OT. Also, standing on your feet for eight hours a day in a sweaty grease pit isn't exactly anyone's idea of how to spend the majority of their waking hours.

Here's another thing to consider: in order to match the numbers that have been provided here (the lovely $1105 and $955), our hypothetical McDonald's worker would either have to make a heck of a higher hourly rate at their other job, working less hours to make those numbers, or they'd have to add another full-time job onto the list. I'd love to hear someone tell me that working 80 hours a week is okay.

I know, I know. That's the kind of work people in third world countries do. They work that many hours for even lower pay! I sure hope we're not saying that we're okay with that either. I'm certainly not.

My numbers might not be exact by any means. Of course they're going to vary from state to state and franchise to franchise. Regardless, I will stand by them as pretty decent figures that paint a fairly appropriate picture. I sincerely hope that the hypothetical individual above isn't a single parent, taking care of an elderly or disabled parent, or ever gets sick themselves -ever. Because they sure can't afford to. All they can afford to do is work to work and work some more and if they're lucky, grab a few hours of sleep once in a while.

While we're at it, I'm curious as to what the CEO makes (I'm always curious about that). It looks like the company changed CEOs this last year and so the best figures we really have regard Jim Skinner who was CEO from 2004 to 2012.

In 2011, Forbes named him the 45th top paid CEO in America with a yearly salary of 20.71 million dollars (2). But okay, let's give him some credit, right? He does a lot of work. He led his team to increase the company's sales "...from $50.1 billion in 2004 to $70.1 billion in 2008"(3). That's a 20 billion dollar increase in sales. I don't know who/what they had to kill (other than cows) to get to that number, but it takes work to do that. Right? He only gets a little over .04% of that share in 2008, and that's not an awful lot of the pie. Maybe it starts to make sense that the little guys on the front lines are only brining in 12k a year or less. Right?

But maybe 20.71 million a year IS actually a whole lot of money to make for a guy who sits comfortably in a board room and nice office, have access to the company's private airplane, and plenty of other amenities. I know that's not all the money he has either. Investments come with that kind of annual income. But hey, he earned it. Sitting in an office, making decisions. It was really hard work.


The worker's aren't asking to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. They're asking to make a livable wage working one job. If you're single and you make under $11,490 a year right now, you are in poverty (4). Our hypothetical person makes $11,640 working 40 hours a week. They're a whole $150 above poverty! Gee, they should count themselves so lucky. Oh, unless they have dependents. For a household of 2, you've got to make more than $15,282 to be over the line. Now our hypothetical person is $3,642 short if they're a single parent or supporting anyone. It's a good thing they work 40 hours at their other job too so they can make up that difference. Phew!

I wonder how the new CEO smells when he goes home. Does his family ask him to shower immediately because he smells like the grease fryer? Does anyone ever say "You've got a pickle on your shoe." Does the stench of the fast food world permeate every article of clothing he owns?  I bet not.

And I bet that when someone in his family gets sick, the first thing on his mind isn't "this is going to cost us so much." Or "We can't afford for someone to get sick!" Because that is how those of us at the economic bottom think. When we get ill, we think about how much debt that is going to compile on our already insurmountable debt from the other time we had a medical emergency because life is full of those. Ooh lordy, don't get me started on the "health" industry. That'd be a whole new bone to pick with McDonald's on multiple levels.

I believe that people who work harder should be rewarded for their hard work. But I also believe that we have grossly misunderstood what hard work means and when we target the poor for asking for basic amenities, we hurt everyone. I make just a little more than our hypothetical McDonald's worker (still under $2k a month) and I think the primary reason I made time to sit here and write about this is because it's the only kind of investment I can make in my future: the hope for perspective changes that might give the rest of us a fighting chance.




 References:

 1. http://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/McDonald-s-Hourly-Pay-E432.htm

 2. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/12/ceo-compensation-11_rank.html 

3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Skinner

4. http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html

Additional links:

5. http://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/MCD--Number_of_Employees

Best Day Ever

Things that happened that made today pretty much awesome: -Didn't work first job where I would have been cleaning my least favorite house to clean. Slept in instead. -The day was gorgeous and from what I heard, a bit hot. I was inside with a swamp cooler. -The boss bought us pizza for lunch. -I found out that an awesome girl is going to take the room I have available in my house. -A friend brought me a fan today for my seriously hot upstairs bedroom, so I don't die this summer. -I got to go on the bank run and it took pleasantly forever. -A regular customer gave me a free coconut water. Yum. -A stranger on his walk gave me the rose he was holding, smiled, and then walked away. -The cat was by my apartment when I got home and I got a good kitty hug. He is now passed out in my book nook as I type. -The day isn't over yet. <3

I'm sorry I've gotten dark about this

Have you ever felt as though someone were listening in on one of your worst moments? You, there, heaving away over a white bowl, with the stench of your lazy inability to clean your own bathroom wafting in waves toward your already pale and coldly sweating face? Nearly a hundred thoughts run through your head in a second: the things you may have drunkenly said last night, that half flight of stairs you nearly fell face-forward down, that dress some girl dared you to put on, whether or not eating that burrito as a supposed hangover cure was or was not in fact a good call. At the same time these hundred thoughts hit you, they dissipate into a white haze, your stomach lunges, you heave more of that awful order-in decision and the multiple shots you thought were a splendid idea just twelve hours ago. Coughing the acid up, sweating a blanket of pale, and intermittently thinking between moments of overwhelmed purging, someone in the next apartment listens in. She presses her head against the wall right where your toilet is, as though she is standing over you witnessing this awful moment. You feel at your weakest and most vulnerable as this practical stranger listens in closely, a scene that ought to be private as far as you are concerned. She revels in it, strangely, knowing that there is a tinge of retribution to be enjoyed here. You see, last night you made the decision to invite your friends over for a night of debauchery to celebrate a holiday that doesn't matter to the culture it is a historical benchmark for. You poured tequila shots into the wee hours and continued to raise the volume despite her plea to "try to keep it down a bit" because she, unlike you, has a couple of jobs to maintain to pay the rent. She's listening to you pay for her night of quiet ruined. And she delights in this weak moment of yours and more so, that strange feeling you couldn't help but have -feeling watched as you throw your guts into a bowl.

Strange Endearment

I find a lot of things that make me somewhat uncomfortable interesting and endearing. I might have a perplexed look on my face, but chances are that if you're doing something really special, I enjoy watching the spectacle.

Like this. This is so fucking weird. And I love it.

I was going to write about my battle with depression...

...but then I thought that I might dive deeper into it and find myself awash in a sea of counter-productivity and despair. I'm doing that thing again, so many of those things again that I do that don't work, that make me miserable, that inspire others to well, not like me much either. Like those things.

Instead, I think revisiting a TED talk I discovered earlier in the week (when I was all happy rainbows and sunshine and shit) might be a good start. Followed by listening to loud music of the electronic variety, and working on my sad bunny painting. Yes, I am working on a sad bunny painting. I cannot wait for it to be finished. The focal point is a big fat bunny crying into his adorable fat little paws. It's probably the best thing I've ever drawn frankly.

Inspiration:


Alright....

So this first: Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work from TED


Then the rest, while I wait for my "Get Over It" Hard Nutrition drink to kick in. You know, I don't like to put too much faith in products, but I've got a good feeling about this one. So many supplements. It can't do me wrong.

There is such a thing as resolution

And forgiveness is the most incredible gift.

I'm glad I don't feel like this anymore...

50 minutes of yes!

Nils Frahm will be at Communikey's Festival of Electronic Arts in April 2012. It is highly recommended that you check out this video. Light some candles, curl up with a book, draw a bath, whatever does it for you. This live set is incredible!




And if you want to see Mr. Frahm live this coming April, you can grab tickets to the festival here:Communikey2012 tickets