{"id":18664,"date":"2013-07-15T12:16:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T16:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=18664"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T03:13:06","slug":"mcdonalds-suggested-budget-for-employees-shows-just-how-impossible-it-is-to-get-by-on-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/07\/mcdonalds-suggested-budget-for-employees-shows-just-how-impossible-it-is-to-get-by-on-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonalds\u2019 suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mcdonalds-e1343059453254\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By<\/span>\u00a0Robyn Pennacchia<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s has partnered with Visa to make a<\/span>\u00a0website<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0dedicated to showing its employees how to properly budget their meager peasant salaries. However, what it actually does is illustrate the fact that it is<\/span>\u00a0nearly impossible<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0to get by on minimum wage, as shown in this \u201cexample\u201d budget chart:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen-shot-2013-07-15-at-9.29.08-AM\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah\u2013 now, when I first saw that, I assumed that the top line was for a part-time McDonald\u2019s employee. Then I got out my calculator\u2013\u00a0that is actually what you would make if you were working\u00a0full-time<\/em>\u00a0at McDonald\u2019s<\/strong>. 1,105 dollars a month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s say that the \u201csecond\u201d job that they budget in here (feels like cheating, but OK) is also minimum wage. That would mean you were working about 62 hours a week, on average. Oh, wait. That\u2019s if they live in Illinois where the minimum wage is $8.25. The national minimum wage is $7.25. That translates to\u00a074 hours<\/strong>\u00a0a week. That\u2019s almost a whole other full time job.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what do you get for working 74 hours a week? Well, you don\u2019t get heat, clearly. There\u2019s a big ol\u2019 zero next to the heat in that chart. In my building\u2013 we have separate checks for gas and electric\u2013 that would mean that not only do you not get to heat and cool your home, but also that you do not get to heat your water, or cook on your stove, if you have a gas stove (I do).<\/span><\/p>\n

Also noticeably absent in this budget? Food. And gas. There\u2019s a line for a car payment, but not for gas. Which is suspect, because if you\u2019re working two jobs it\u2019s possible you will pay more for your gas than you\u2019d be paying for your car.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also\u2026 health insurance for $20 a month? There is really no such thing as health insurance for $20 a month if you\u2019re buying your health insurance on your own. I think the least amount is going to be about $215 a month\u2013 and that only covers hospital emergencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The minimum wage in this country is reprehensible. If the minimum wage had kept up with inflation it would be over $10 an hour. If it had kept up with productivity?<\/span>\u00a0It would be $21.72<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"min-wage1-fig2-2012-03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Right now, we have people in our government saying that we shouldn\u2019t even have a minimum wage. That employers should be free to pay people whatever they can get someone to agree to work for. If they can get someone to work for $3 an hour, then it should be allowed.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are people who comfort themselves by telling themselves that poor people are only poor because poor people are\u00a0lazy<\/em>. Pretty sure someone who works 74 hours a week isn\u2019t lazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may think that most of these minimum wage earners are teenagers. Well,\u00a0<\/span>87.9% of minimum wage earners are over the age of 20<\/span><\/a><\/span>. 28% of those people are parents trying to raise a kid on this budget. That is not a good thing for our future and it is not a good thing for our economy. In order for the economy to thrive, people have to be able to buy things. All the money going to people at the top does not help us.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to live in any kind of dog-eat-dog Ayn Rand erotic fantasy. Human beings are worth more than that. Anyone who works 40 hours a week (nevermind 74 hours) ought be able to take care of all the basic necessities in life. Corporations shouldn\u2019t be able to pay their workers nothing, keep all of the profits to themselves, and expect taxpayers to make up the difference with social programs. It\u2019s not fair to the workers, and it\u2019s not fair to any of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Robyn Pennacchia McDonald\u2019s has partnered with Visa to make a\u00a0website\u00a0dedicated to showing its employees how to properly budget their meager peasant salaries. However, what it..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,172,181,43,97],"tags":[229,197,347],"class_list":["post-18664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-healthcare","category-labor","category-media-culture","category-us-news","tag-economic-exploitation","tag-imperialism","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mcdonalds-e1343059453254.jpg?fit=640%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39441,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664\/revisions\/39441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}