Burger Cooks Cost $7 Billion a Year in Government Aid

[Purveyor]

By Leslie Patton - Oct 15, 2013

Hamburger grillers and other fast-food workers at restaurants such as McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) and Wendy’s Co. get about $7 billion a year in U.S. government aid, a report published today shows.

With jobs not paying enough for employees to meet their basic needs, an increasing number of working families must rely on publicly funded programs to make ends meet, according to a study from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Fast-food employees have gone on strike this year to demand $15-an-hour pay and the right to form a union as income inequality in the U.S. grows. Fast-food cooks make $9 an hour on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While thousands of workers have protested in cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and Milwaukee this year, the strikes have done little so far to change the restaurant sector, which employs more than 10 million Americans.

“The industry is a heavy user of minimum-wage and low-wage workers,” Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at Berkeley and an author of the report, said in an interview. “Low-wage workers today, in general, are making less than their counterparts did 50 years ago.”

That’s why some fry cooks are finding it harder to pull themselves out of poverty and get ahead, she said.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-15/burger-cooks-cost-7-billion-a-year-in-government-aid.html

[pipoman]

1. Not sure why cooks are the battleground..

when most of retail is exactly the same. Most of the people you give your money to and who assist you in retail are in the minimum wage camp too...and are equally dependent on government aid..There will always be a need for low skill workers..they will never get skilled worker wages until/unless they move into skilled jobs...the goal is working toward a living wage for all unskilled labor IMHO..

[FreakinDJ]

2. All the Skilled Wage Jobs have been Outsourced to China

So your theory doesn't apply

[pipoman]

3. Not true..though I can appreciate the sentiment..

I usually need cooks, and we pay well over minimum wage for skilled cooks...I recruit burger flippers with a passion for cooking and desire to learn, teach and mentor them..2 have gone on to culinary school after working on my team..there are some opportunities..