McDonald’s $8.25 Man and $8.75 Million CEO Shows Pay Gap

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-12/mcdonald-s-8-25-man-and-8-75-million-ceo-shows-pay-gap.html

Tyree Johnson scrubs himself with a bar of soap in a McDonald’s (MCD) bathroom and puts on fresh deodorant. He stashes his toiletries in a Kenneth Cole bag, a gift from his mother who works the counter at Macy’s, and hops on an El train. His destination: another McDonald’s.

Johnson isn’t one of Chicago’s many homeless people who seek shelter in fast-food joints. He’s a McDonald’s employee, at both stores -- one in the Loop, the other about a mile away in the shadow of Holy Name Cathedral.

He needs the makeshift baths because hygiene and appearance are part of his annual compensation reviews. Even with frequent scrubbings, he said before a recent shift, it’s hard to remove the essence of the greasy food he works around.

“I hate when my boss tells me she won’t give me a raise because she can smell me,” he said.


***for those who think mcd's are jobs only for kids.

Tyree Johnson, a 20-year McDonald's employee making minimum wage, crosses a street on his way to work in Chicago.

[HughBeaumont]

1. Huh, on Bloomberg.com even.

Wonder if this little tidbit of stark reality will penetrate their average viewer?

[HiPointDem]

2. he's worked there 20 years and makes minimum fucking wage?

[HughBeaumont]

8. LESS than. Minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and production for how many years now?

He SHOULD be making at least 12 an hour.

Cue the Third Way/Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaire blather: "Yewd pay someone 12 an 'ahr . . . . t' flip bergers???" YES!!! YES, we goddamned well SHOULD be paying them that much. EVERYONE IN AMERICA makes too fucking little! Anyone thinks they can live on 8 bucks an hour?

It's an absolute CRIME what they're getting away with paying their workers.

[hfojvt]

15. actually no - twenty years ago we were still in the Reagan Dark Ages

in 1991, minimum wage was only $4.25 an hour. In 2011 dollars that is only $6.91, but thanks to Pelosi, minimum wage went to $7.25 an hour in 2009.

Now, 40 years ago - in 1970 minimum wage was $1.60 which was $9.12 in 2011 dollars.

The peak of minimum wage appears to be 1968 when it first went to $1.60 from $1.40 in 1967 and $1.25 in 1963. In 1968, it was worth $10.17 an hour in 2011 dollars. Otherwise in 1963 it was worth $9.04 and in 1967 worth $9.28. Minumum wage was only worth $8.50 an hour in 1961 when it was $1.15.

[HughBeaumont]

18. He should be grateful & celebrating because he's gained a whopping $1.22/hr in purchasing power

in 20 YEARS?

My point is whether it's 6.91 an hour in 1991 or 8.25 an hour in 2012, that doesn't get him any more than a beater to drive in (hopefully he doesn't need one). That likely doesn't put much of a safe roof over his head in Chicago. That barely feeds him. That probably doesn't cover bills or get him a phone or an internet connection. That doesn't even begin to help him if God forbid he gets sick or injured.

Multiply this by millions of people and I don't really see how a consumer-based economy continues with no redistributed production gains or government revenue to back it up. How is cost of living met? How does our safety net get shored up?

[hobbit709]

9. A friend of mine works at a burger joint. He gets $8.50/hr after 4 years there

The manager gets $100K+. The size of the manager's bonus is determined by how much he can cut labor costs.

[0zone]

3. CEO breakdown on pay

About $72 a minute.
About $4320 an hour.
About $172800 a week.
About $743000 a month.

This guy either shits gold bricks or lays golden eggs to justify his salary!
Nobody is worth that much, especially someone in charge of a hamburger stand!

[xchrom]

4. i like the way you phrased that.

it's a nice turn around on the way some DUers have characterized what 'hamburger flippers' should earn.

[Hayabusa]

17. Over $1 a second...

Holy shit...

[marmar]

5. k/r

[dynasaw]

6. $8.25 an hour versus $8.75 Million

McDonald’s, based in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, paid then-CEO Jim Skinner $8.75 Million last year. Johnson, the man covered in this story, made $8,518.80 through Sept. 9 this year.

I don't call that a gap. It's a chasm.

[hobbit709]

7. That's like calling the Grand Canyon a gully.

[DaveJ]

10. Travesty. What kind of human could do this to another?

He must have a boss, right, for 20 years, no raises, just watching go through that with no progress? That's inhumane, imo. But of course most corporations you don't have "bosses" per se, they just come an go so everyone is just a cog in the system. A system that fucks people over where nobody is in a position of accountability for lack of ethics.

[99Forever]

12. What kind of human could do this to another?

All of the corporate bastards, that's what kind. ALL. OF. THEM.


And the bastards in public office won't just do nothing about it, they will CONTINUE to enable them and send their goons out to crush anybody who doesn't kneel to them.


This is America's future. Get used to it.

[Overseas]

11. K&R. And the pay gap has doubled at McDonalds over the past 10 years.

And the company lobbies against raising the minimum wage.

[gollygee]

13. Wow. 20 years and still making minimum wage.

He's making very very little money. If he works 40 hours a week, he's making $340. People ask why someone would take welfare instead of looking for a job, any job, but look at this. He's been working for 20 years at the same place and is making $340 a week, assuming he gets scheduled 40 hours. And McDonalds is tiring on-your-feel-all-day work, and he is not a young man. And what if this were a young woman with kids? She wouldn't even pay her child care with that.

[HughBeaumont]

14. Put in perspective of how wages aren't keeping up with inflation/cost of living . . .

. . . he's actually LOSING money (and ground) every year.

This isn't "keeping labor costs low", this is THEFT. This is a CRIME.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. if his pay had risen above min wage, they'd try to get rid of him to hire a new min wage employee

that's how it works.

[In_The_Wind]

16. Sad but true.

Too many of the homeless are there in spite of their efforts to change their plite.

[davidpdx]

19. I just read this, a very worthwhile article that is thought provoking but sad

Came over here to see if someone had posted it, because if not I would have.

[DaveJ]

21. K&R