Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead


Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some
version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or
"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage
of a variety of training and other professional development
opportunities." Those statements, from the New York Restaurant
Association and McDonald's, sum up the argument: Fast food workers may
be making poverty wages now, but they could become managers! Owners! The
possibilities are limitless, so really there's no point in paying people
a living wage! Of course, it's not really true.

A new report from the National Employment Law Project reveals just how
false that story of easy advancement is. In the United States as a
whole, 31 percent of jobs are managerial, professional, or technical. In
the fast food industry, it's 2.2 percent. Front-line
occupations—cashiers and fry cooks and the like—are 89.1 percent of fast
food jobs, and they pay a median wage of $8.94 an hour. That's less than
$18,600 for a year of full-time work, not that most of these jobs are
full-time. And what if you do get promoted? Most of those promotions are
to the 8.7 percent of fast food jobs that are first-line supervisors.
Those pay a median of $13.06.

If you want to be a franchise owner, you already have to be rich in most
cases. At the cheap end, you can get a Papa John's franchise if you have
a net worth of $150,000 and liquid assets of $50,000. But try saving
enough to buy one of those at $8.94 or even $13.06 an hour. And the next
cheapest major franchise is Dunkin Donuts, which requires you to have a
net worth of $500,000 and liquid assets of $250,000, and it goes up from
there. So, no, a low-wage fast food job is not the launching pad to
franchise ownership.

In other words, the fast food industry is the dead end you always
thought it was. The myths of mobility it tries to peddle to justify all
those low wages are just that: myths. The vast majority of fast food
jobs pay poverty wages, and there is no more a franchise ownership
coming for the workers struggling to make a living on pay that even
McDonald's indirectly acknowledges isn't enough to live on than there is
a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

http://tinyurl.com/ks3el99

- - -

Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead





Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some

version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or

"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage

of a variety of training and other professional development

opportunities." ....



Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.


You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.

A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...

Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'

On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead





Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some

version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or

"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage

of a variety of training and other professional development

opportunities." ....



Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.


You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.

A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...

Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'



No, I didn't, but you misspelled misspelled.

This really isn't the United States of America anymore. It's become a
Kafkaesque novel.

F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead





Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some

version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or

"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage

of a variety of training and other professional development

opportunities." ....



Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.


You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.

A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers
while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite
LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the
upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a
CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US
gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two
years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling
fish...

Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'



No, I didn't, but you misspelled misspelled.

This really isn't the United States of America anymore. It's become a
Kafkaesque novel.
You were leaving the country for Costa Rica, right? Maybe that was just
to avoid your delinquent taxes.

On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead





Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some

version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or

"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage

of a variety of training and other professional development

opportunities." ....



Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.


You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.

A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...

Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'



I'm sorry the fast food article went over your head. It had nothing to
do with working at a fast food joint and then finding other jobs in
other places. It had to do with the promises made to naive workers by
fast food restaurants, promises that they someday might rise to a
position of significance in the chain and maybe even own a franchise
restaurant. That's bull****. You aren't going to amass a million dollars
working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.

On Sat, 27 Jul 2013 21:25:34 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

I'm sorry the fast food article went over your head. It had nothing to
do with working at a fast food joint and then finding other jobs in
other places. It had to do with the promises made to naive workers by
fast food restaurants, promises that they someday might rise to a
position of significance in the chain and maybe even own a franchise
restaurant. That's bull****. You aren't going to amass a million dollars
working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.

===

So no one should work for the minimum wage because they can't make a
million dollars? That's ridiculous. No matter how high you make the
minimum wage it is still the minimum. How much do you think entry
level, low skill jobs should pay? When I was in college I cheerfully
worked at jobs that paid less than the minimum because I was happy to
have the extra pocket money. No one expects to make a career of it
except maybe you.

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:25:34 PM UTC-5, Earl wrote:
On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:

Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead











Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some



version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or



"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage



of a variety of training and other professional development



opportunities." ....







Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor..





You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.



A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...



Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'







I'm sorry the fast food article went over your head. It had nothing to

do with working at a fast food joint and then finding other jobs in

other places. It had to do with the promises made to naive workers by

fast food restaurants, promises that they someday might rise to a

position of significance in the chain and maybe even own a franchise

restaurant. That's bull****. You aren't going to amass a million dollars

working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.

I'm sorry that you feel that anyone who works at fast food is a slave who is trapped because they supposedly have been promised the world.

On 7/28/13 1:32 AM, Tim wrote:
On Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:25:34 PM UTC-5, Earl wrote:
On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:

Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead











Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some



version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or



"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage



of a variety of training and other professional development



opportunities." ....







Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.





You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.



A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...



Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'







I'm sorry the fast food article went over your head. It had nothing to

do with working at a fast food joint and then finding other jobs in

other places. It had to do with the promises made to naive workers by

fast food restaurants, promises that they someday might rise to a

position of significance in the chain and maybe even own a franchise

restaurant. That's bull****. You aren't going to amass a million dollars

working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.

I'm sorry that you feel that anyone who works at fast food is a slave who is trapped because they supposedly have been promised the world.



Did I state or imply that? No, of course not. Next...

On Sunday, July 28, 2013 6:12:38 AM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 7/28/13 1:32 AM, Tim wrote:

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:25:34 PM UTC-5, Earl wrote:

On 7/27/13 9:18 PM, Tim wrote:



On Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:00:28 PM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:



Uncovering an industry's lies: Fast food offers few ways to get ahead























Press a fast food chain to pay better wages, and you'll hear some







version of this: "The restaurant industry is a launching pad" or







"[E]mployees who want to go from crew to management can take advantage







of a variety of training and other professional development







opportunities." ....















Ahh. Amerika...land of opportunity...for the rich to feed off the poor.











You miss-spelled 'America' Harry.







A High school classmate of mine, started working at Long John Silvers while in High school, then went to be the manager, then DM. He quite LJS and went to work as an innkeeper for a large Holiday Inn in the upper Quad cities. Then perused a couple other ventures. Now he's a CEO of a computer securities company which is a contractor to the US gov't. BTW, the gov't has renewed his companies contract every two years for the last 10. Not bad for a kid who started out broiling fish...







Yep, all in the 'land of opportunity'















I'm sorry the fast food article went over your head. It had nothing to



do with working at a fast food joint and then finding other jobs in



other places. It had to do with the promises made to naive workers by



fast food restaurants, promises that they someday might rise to a



position of significance in the chain and maybe even own a franchise



restaurant. That's bull****. You aren't going to amass a million dollars



working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.



I'm sorry that you feel that anyone who works at fast food is a slave who is trapped because they supposedly have been promised the world.







Did I state or imply that? No, of course not. Next...

Sure you did. look at the title of your thread, and please review your article you posted.

page 2.

On Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:25:34 PM UTC-5, Earl wrote:

You aren't going to amass a million dollars

working for minimum wage or even double minimum wage.

How many 'drive-thru window' kids have you asked that thought they would?