McDonald’s Embarrasses Itself Giving Financial Advice to its Employees

McDonald’s added a budget planner to their website, and the tool exposes some assumptions that implicate fast-food restaurants. In planning a budget, the restaurant assumes that its employees should work two jobs to eke together $24,500 a year. Fast food services are more likely to earn about $18,130 a year, but assuming they made the $24K, the finances still look shoddy. They have come under scrutiny by a group called Low Pay is Not OK, which aims to raise the minimum wage and pressure restaurants and similar employers to pay their employees a living wage. For job seekers, having more jobs on the market that can sustain life would be better.

Getting a job is difficult, and many have to work in fast food. But can they even live off it? Low Pay is Not OK says no. While most fast food employees make $7 or $8 an hour, they would certainly have to work extra hours, seeking a second job. It would take $12.80 per hour for forty hours a week to earn the minimum $24,500 that McDonalds calls livable. But McDonald’s cuts around the edges in their projective budgeting suggesting, saying that $20 a month for healthcare and $600 a month for housing should be sufficient. For many this is not sufficient at all, especially with expensive housing in bigger cities.

It seems that McDonalds in trying to advise its employees on how to use their money has only exposed how inadequate their wages are. Those hoping to live a sustainable existence might look elsewhere for more reasonable employment.