Following Wal-Mart, McDonald's in trouble for advise for poor workers.

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http://www.nbcnews.com/business/mcf...yees-return-purchases-skip-takeout-2D11638179

McDonald’s is once again getting grilled over its employee advice, this time suggesting ways to get out of holiday debt that include returning unopened purchases and bringing a sack lunch.

The criticism comes months after it took heat over an employee budget guide that included no money for heat and $20 a month for health care.

The labor advocacy group Low Pay Is Not OK is lambasting McDonald’s for articles on an employee website that suggest workers visit thrift stores instead of the mall, use stale bread and bruised apples rather than throwing them out, and “quit complaining” as a way to reduce stress. And to pay off holiday debt, it suggested returning purchases.

“On a short term basis, do whatever it takes to dig out from your holiday debt,” said one article on the McResource Line website, a screen grab of which was provided by Low Pay Is Not OK.

“You may want to consider returning some of your unopened purchases that may not seem as appealing as they did. Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash," it continued. “Consider bringing a brown bag lunch and skipping the takeout …. You might also consider a temporary part time job to dig out of debt quickly.”

The article appeared to have been removed from the site by midday Thursday.

Video from Low Pay Is Not OK

McDonald’s did not return multiple calls for comment. A company spokeswoman, in a statement emailed to CNBC, said Low Pay Is Not OK’s video about the website took the advice out of context and characterized the campaign as “an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website.”

Although the spokeswoman said McDonald’s and Nurtur Health, which created the site, would “review the content and make any necessary adjustments,” she defended the site. “The vast majority of the resources and information on the site are based on credible outside experts and well-published advice,” she said.

An executive at Nurtur Health referred queries to McDonald’s public relations department.

Ruth Milkman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York, said the advice is “probably well-intentioned but shows deep ignorance of what it means to survive on a low wage job. Between the low wages and the short hours, it’s tough out there.”

Felicia Cochran, a McDonald’s drive-thru worker who earns less than $8 an hour, criticized the advice about returning holiday purchases in an online chat. “If I’ve already bought my kids their gifts, I just couldn’t do it to them to return their things. We’re already poor as it is and we have to do without so much,” she said.

Cochran said she hadn’t used the McResource Line, but that she’s “lucky” to get two days a week on the schedule and she’s on food stamps, “cause $7.78/hr doesn’t afford much of anything for making a living.”

In an earlier campaign, Low Pay Is Not OK reported that the advice given to a McDonald’s worker who contacted the McResource Line by phone was to apply for food stamps.

McDonald’s isn’t the only company facing criticism for its wages. Wal-Mart Stores came under fire after an article Monday in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer showed photos of the employee area of an Ohio store housing a food donation bin — intended for workers to supply food to other workers.

The flap over McDonald’s advice and the Wal-Mart employee food donations highlight a broader challenge pertaining to the burgeoning number of low-wage jobs in the American economy, said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

“What we have here is one more situation where workers are fairly powerless,” he said. “It raises issues about living wage and minimum wage.”

Shrinking union clout and an increasingly bifurcated economy rife with low-wage service jobs give Americans without a college degree less of a chance than generations before them of earning enough for a middle-class lifestyle. “It raises a fundamental question about upward mobility,” Carnevale said.
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Sell some of your stuff and eat stale food because we absolutely will not pay you a living wage.
 
I met some people that work HR in Wal-Mart just last week. It was...interesting. They honestly believe that Wal-Mart is a good place to be and that you can actually work your way up if you work hard (which I guess is good considering that if anyone would believe that Wal-Mart HR should). When I brought up that it must be hard to motivate people because they didn't pay enough for people to care, they said they were greatful that there was such a glut of people that need jobs.
 
Right. I guess I'm missing the reason that this is being brought up by that organization again now.
 
Some of this stuff is messed up.

But stale bread still works for cooking, and tastes fine for French Toast.
Sack lunches are fine.

Health care. No
Returning unopened purchases. After holidays
Apples. Find someway to use eit without wasting
Heat. WTH

But for the food, people REALLY shouldn't waste so much. It's retarded
 
Hahaha, this isn't even the same article I was reading in the past week about McDonalds offering shit advice to its workforce:

McDonald's is encouraging its workers to take time off to stay healthy, even as many of them can't afford to take that advice.

The fast food giant's personal wellness website, called the McResource Line, is now offering workers guidance on how to eat healthy, manage stress and get enough sleep. "Don't let the distraction of your money worries prevent you from getting regular exercise, eating healthy and getting enough sleep," the website says. The site also offers dieting advice -- telling workers to break their food into small pieces to eat less and stay full -- that could appear insensitive to a low-paid workforce that sometimes relies on food stamps.

...

Among many tips on how to de-stress is one championing the benefits of vacation:
P9Vg0rl.jpg



Indeed, taking time off work has been shown to reduce stress and the risk of heart disease, but vacation is out of reach for many low-wage workers, including those at McDonald's. According to a recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, just less than half of low-wage earners in the U.S. get any paid vacation.

...

Jeanette Lynn, a 26-year-old McDonald's worker in Durham, N.C., told The Huffington Post that she has worked for a franchise for two years and gets no paid vacation, holidays or sick days. Working less than 20 hours a week for $7.25 an hour, Lynn has never gotten a raise and has a hard time supporting her three sons on fast food wages.

"We make $7.25 an hour," Lynn said. "Why in the world would we take vacation if we already aren't getting paid enough?" Lynn said she recently had her hours cut and is planning to apply for public assistance to supplement her income.

[Article Continued At Link]
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/mcdonalds-vacation_n_4303629.html

I work at a Jets Pizza and if I want a vacation or sick day I have to call in and get someone to cover my shift or risk getting fired. I obviously don't get paid for those days I miss either. Makes it pretty much impossible to travel for the holidays.
 
The stale bread and apple bit isn't too outrageous. You can make toast with stale bread. Hell, wasn't toasting developed as a way of making stale bread more edible? And bruised apples can be turned into apple sauces and such.

The rest is pretty damn awful.
 
That's almost comically patronizing.

I wonder if McDonalds has an inhouse guy who writes that shit or if they outsource it to an ad agency. I can just imagine the person writing the content smirking as they type up some horribly offensive "advice" for the peons of Mickey D's to never actually take the time to read.
 
I don't understand. Why can't everyone just go to college and be successful like me? These people disgust me. They deserve to suffer. Best that the middle class keeps the money as we are more likely to invest it wiser.
 
Diablos said:
Another fine example that confirms we need to bring the Unions back and in a big way.
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From my experience with unions, they take your money and every so often add a rule that let's you do something your managers complained about before. No increase in pay, no vacation for part time employees (which the managers made sure everyone was always under 40 hours even if you were at 39 like I was). I had a guy I worked with get screwed by a rep, because the rep was pretty much in with the store manager and was waiting for retirement. He wound up quitting and working elsewhere.

I'd rather we set regulations on companies with taxes for profit made vs. what lower end employees make. In other words, if your employees make minimum wage you're not going to get much profit. Or let's cap CEO pay and bonuses vs. lower end employee wages. Once we start capping things off, companies will spend the money...not sure what it'll do to the marketplace though.
 
I'm amazed how brazenly hostile business has become to labor. The problem is there was a schism where this labor was fundamentally disconnected from the 'middle class' so there isn't the kind of empathy there once was.

Out of sight, out of mind.

PaulloDEC said:
Why does the article highlight bringing a packed lunch to work? Isn't that... y'know, perfectly sensible?
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Well that packed lunch includes the stale bread and bruised apples.
 
but that she’s “lucky” to get two days a week on the schedule and she’s on food stamps, “cause $7.78/hr doesn’t afford much of anything for making a living.”
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jesus fuck I can't even imagine that. stuffs tight for me at $12 an hour at 15 hours a week right now. Admittedly I have tuition, but I also don't have kids
 
Boom Boom Pow said:
what, in your opinion, is a living wage? how much per hour?
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A living wage, IMO, is whatever combination of wages and hours allows you to meet your necessities, ideally with one child, without requiring additional government assistance. Call it the bare minimum to be self sufficient and also support one offspring, two things I believe are important.

If you need foodstamps I don't consider what you're making to be a living wage. Since, ya know, you couldn't live on it.
 
You know what really helped the slaves back in the days? They just quit complaining. Voila! The pyramids were done.
 
Why are people so hung up on Wal-Mart and McDonald's? Their pay is no different than any other non-skilled job pay in this country. Every grocery store, every fast food joint, every retail store, every gas station, pretty much every job a high school dropout can do in this country pays the same, but it's always these two companies that bear the brunt of rage from people.
 
Rafterman said:
Why are people so hung up on Wal-Mart and McDonald's? Their pay is no different than any other non-skilled job pay in this country. Every grocery store, every fast food joint, every retail store, every gas station, pretty much every job a high school dropout can do in this country pays the same, but it's always these two companies that bear the brunt of rage from people.
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They're, in many ways, the biggest. They're the leaders in their "class". Its not at all surprising that people put them under the most scrutiny, or at least jump to using them as examples of the deeper systemic problems
 
The Technomancer said:
A living wage, IMO, is whatever combination of wages and hours allows you to meet your necessities, ideally with one child, without requiring additional government assistance. Call it the bare minimum to be self sufficient and also support one offspring, two things I believe are important.

If you need foodstamps I don't consider what you're making to be a living wage. Since, ya know, you couldn't live on it.
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again, I would like to know what is, in your opinion, that # then . Please define necessities. Is it owning a car? What kind of car? under $20k, under $30k, under $40k? Is it being able to travel say, 3 times a year outside the country?

Let's say, living in Los Angeles. so, go, give me a $/hour.

Using foodstamp, for a household of 3 people (2 parents and 1 kid), it's about $2116 for both parents. That's 1058 per month per parents. So that's about $13000 a year, or about $6 an hour per parents, or $12 an hour per 2 parents.

So then, I would assume, $12/hour is good then for you?
 
CornBurrito said:
Wouldn't that depend on the cost of living in your area? I mean I always thought a living wage was defined as having a high enough wage to afford housing, utilities, a means of transportation to your job, and food.
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There is also the fact that you need enough money for health insurance, savings, and god forbid leisure time.

Boom Boom Pow said:
again, I would like to know what is, in your opinion, that # then . Please define necessities. Is it owning a car? What kind of car? under $20k, under $30k, under $40k? Is it being able to travel say, 3 times a year outside the country?
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What the hell are you talking about?
 
Boom Boom Pow said:
again, I would like to know what is, in your opinion, that # then . Please define necessities. Is it owning a car? What kind of car? under $20k, under $30k, under $40k? Is it being able to travel say, 3 times a year outside the country?

Let's say, living in Los Angeles. so, go, give me a $/hour
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How do you expect people to get to their job without a car? Fund better public transportation?

Anyway he already gave his opinion on the number.

zero shift said:
What the hell are you talking about?
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I mean it is clear what Boom Boom Pow is going for. He is hoping to trap someone in a "GOTCHA!" trap by getting someone to quote him an exact number and then either talk about why that wage is too high for low skill jobs and how nobody should be payed that for flipping burgers, or argue that "necessities" shouldn't cover things like housing or utilities.
 
Boom Boom Pow said:
again, I would like to know what is, in your opinion, that # then . Please define necessities. Is it owning a car? What kind of car? under $20k, under $30k, under $40k? Is it being able to travel say, 3 times a year outside the country?

Let's say, living in Los Angeles. so, go, give me a $/hour
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No, I can't. The minimum living wage will distort the market and the safety net, which will result in the minimum needing to be adjusted, which will result in further distortion until we servo in on something. The only way to define a living wage is in terms of purchasing power, you cannot just pull a number out of your ass and say "this will be enough". Its entirely characteristic of the asininely simplistic woldview I've come to expect from you however.

For the purposes of your insistince on specificity yeah, I'll say that a living wage allows you to get transportation to your place of work (including public transit, I'm currently on an hour long bus commute every day to work), and no it doesn't include travel three times a year outside the country. I mean what the hell does that even mean? My parents take in over 100k a year and we can't afford to leave the country three times a year. We can afford it maybe like once every three years, if that.
 
The Technomancer said:
No, I can't. The minimum living wage will distort the market and the safety net, which will result in the minimum needing to be adjusted, which will result in further distortion until we servo in on something. The only way to define a living wage is in terms of purchasing power, you cannot just pull a number out of your ass and say "this will be enough"

For the purposes of your insistince on specificity yeah, I'll say that a living wage allows you to get transportation to your place of work (including public transit, I'm currently on an hour long bus commute every day to work), and no it doesn't include travel three times a year outside the country. I mean what the hell does that even mean? My parents take in over 100k a year and we can't afford to leave the country three times a year. We can afford it maybe like once every three years, if that.
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it means for you to get more detail. Saying, "necessities" and "living wage" means nothing. You have to quantify it if you want to make a proper argument.
 
Rafterman said:
Why are people so hung up on Wal-Mart and McDonald's? Their pay is no different than any other non-skilled job pay in this country. Every grocery store, every fast food joint, every retail store, every gas station, pretty much every job a high school dropout can do in this country pays the same, but it's always these two companies that bear the brunt of rage from people.
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Because their profit to overhead margin is the highest. Most gas stations, grocery stores or mom&pop stores can't afford to pay their employees high wages because their profit margin is too slim. Companies like Walmart make MASSIVE profits, and all that money is funneled up to the top of the company- CEOs and owners. It's a perpetual system of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
 
Boom Boom Pow said:
it means for you to get more detail. Saying, "necessities" and "living wage" means nothing. You have to quantify it if you want to make a proper argument.
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Fine.

Food. Rent. Utilities. Healthcare. Transportation to work. These are nessecities. Without them it is not possible to function in our current society, hence why we have government options for basically all of them in recognition of the fact that people need them,

I'm not going to play your number game though, CornBurrito hit the nail on the head with how that fun exchange is going to go.
 
It's all coming down. No way an economy can survive on people working full time living off the government to make ends meet. While employers are dodging taxes paying congress laughing all the way to the bank.
 
The Technomancer said:
Fine.

Food. Rent. Utilities. Healthcare. Transportation to work. These are nessecities. Without them it is not possible to function in our current society, hence why we have government options for basically all of them in recognition of the fact that people need them,

I'm not going to play your number game though, CornBurrito hit the nail on the head with how that fun exchange is going to go.
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Honestly, I think having money for entertainment and vacations is also a necessity. Being able to relieve stress is one of a human's most basic needs (reduces physical and mental health risks) and makes most people a better worker, to boot.
 
Belfast said:
Honestly, I think having money for entertainment and vacations is also a necessity. Being able to relieve stress is one of a human's most basic needs (reduces physical and mental health risks) and makes most people a better worker, to boot.
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which was the point behind my question earlier about, making enough money to be able to travel and getting a nice relaxing vacation.

so, this place right here http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/apa/4201051438.html costs $2600 a month. another $200 for all utilities. Now, everyone should be able to afford living wherever they want right? we can't make it exclusively that only rich people can live next to the beach.

Let's say for food, it'll costs each person about $10 per day, so $30 per day for food (underestimating here. So an extra $900 a month for food).

Healthcare, let's say it's employer subsidized, so for a family of 3, we'll underestimate and say, $2000 per year.

Transportation: Let's say, we get the family to own 2 cars, drive a relative 30 minute to work. Maintenance, gas, monthly, installment, we'll say, a year, it'll cost about $3000.

So, let's add up the cost. Rent: $2800 a month x 12 = $33,600 a year. Food: $10,800. Healthcare: $2000. Transportation: $3000. Total: $50000 a year. Now, let's make it simple, and have one parent work, and one stay at home to take care of the kid.

So $50,000 a year in net income. So before tax takehome, it's gonna be about $60,000 gross income.

So the person, should be making $29 an hour to sustain this lifestyle.

Am I wrong anywhere in my calculation?
 
Boom Boom Pow said:
which was the point behind my question earlier about, making enough money to be able to travel and getting a nice relaxing vacation.

so, this place right here http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/apa/4201051438.html costs $2600 a month. another $200 for all utilities. Now, everyone should be able to afford living wherever they want right? we can't make it exclusively that only rich people can live next to the beach.

Let's say for food, it'll costs each person about $10 per day, so $30 per day for food (underestimating here. So an extra $900 a month for food).

Healthcare, let's say it's employer subsidized, so for a family of 3, we'll underestimate and say, $2000 per year.

Transportation: Let's say, we get the family to own 2 cars, drive a relative 30 minute to work. Maintenance, gas, monthly, installment, we'll say, a year, it'll cost about $3000.

So, let's add up the cost. Rent: $2800 a month x 12 = $33,600 a year. Food: $10,800. Healthcare: $2000. Transportation: $3000. Total: $50000 a year. Now, let's make it simple, and have one parent work, and one stay at home to take care of the kid.

So $50,000 a year in net income. So before tax takehome, it's gonna be about $60,000 gross income.

So the person, should be making $29 an hour to sustain this lifestyle.

Am I wrong anywhere in my calculation?
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How the hell did you twist what he said about people deserving a living wage instead of the embarrassing pittance these corporations give them? My head hurts.

Edit: Please be a troll because this is beyond stupid.
 
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