McDonald’s worker Tyree Johnson.
Tyree Johnson 44-year-old has worked at McDonalds for two decades. He earns just $8.25 an hour, and doesn’t get 40 hours a week of work. So he has jobs at two Chicago McDonald’s, scrubbing himself down in the bathroom between shifts, because he may be denied a raise if he smells bad. Twice a month he goes to church food pantries to stock up on cereal, soup and powdered milk.
Tyree Johnson would have to work for 1.1 million hours to earn the $8.8 million that McDonald’s CEO James Skinner was paid last year. If he worked for 40 hours a week, every week of the year, that would take five centuries.
His story has been exposed by Leslie Patton on www.bloomberg.com in a hard hitting article which also exposes McDonald’s anti-union stance.
Claire Gordon of aol.jobs.com has also exposed the scandal of the fast food rip off, which is set out below. Some of the fast food producers are well known in the UK, other not so well well known.
Retail And Fast Food: Fast-Growing Industries
Opportunity is bright, profits are soaring, and the jobs are horribly paid. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, retail sales employed 4.5 million Americans in 2010, and fast food restaurants employed 2.1 million. The annual salaries for these jobs are $20,990 and $18,070, respectively. And these are no longer part-time jobs for teenagers; the vast majority of workers are in their 20s and older, and many of them are raising families.
Employers Are Organised To Keep Wages Low
The service industry, unlike manufacturing, has very little history of its workers organising to demand better pay or hours. Restaurant chains, on the other hand, are very organized at keeping pay down. As Patton points out, restaurant chains and their franchisees spent at least $960,000 to fight minimum-wage increases in six states in 2006.
Income Inequality Widens
Between 1978 and 2011, worker compensation grew by 5.7 percent, according to an analysis by the the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that advocates for lower-wage workers. In the same period, CEO compensation ballooned by 725 percent.
Below is a list of 11 of the biggest fast food and retail chains, along with how long an average low-level employee would need to work to make the amount his or her CEO took home last year. It seems the annual worth of one CEO is now equal to many other human beings’ lifetimes.
CEO compensation data are from the companies’ most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Average employee salaries are from Glassdoor.com. The number of years it would take an employee to earn the CEO’s compensation is based on working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year.
11. DUNKIN’ BRANDS
CEO Nigel Travis’ total compensation: $2.0 million
Crew member: $7.83 an hour
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 250,000 hours or 120 years
10. PAPA JOHN’S
CEO John Schnatter’s total compensation: $2.7 million.
Average delivery driver salary: $7.19 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 382,000 hours or 184 years.
9. DOLLAR GENERAL
CEO Richard Dreiling’s total compensation: $3,832,000.
Average sales associate salary: $7.62 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 503,000 hours or 242 years.
8. BEST BUY
CEO Brian Dunn’s total compensation: $7.1 million.
Average sales associate salary: $9.73 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 730,000 hours or 350 years.
7. HOME DEPOT
CEO Francis Blake’s total compensation: $10.8 million.
Average sales associate salary: $11.47.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 941,000 hours or 452 years.
6. MCDONALD’S
CEO James Skinner’s total compensation: $8.8 million.
Average crew member salary: $7.65 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 1.1 million hours or 550 years.
5. CVS CAREMARK CORPORATION
CEO Larry Merlo’s: $11.4.
Average cashier salary: $8.86 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 1.3 million hours or 619 years.
4. WALMART
CEO Michael Duke’s total compensation: $18.1 million.
Average sales associate salary: $8.84 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 2.1 million hours or 986 years.
3. WENDY’S
CEO Roland Smith’s total compensation: $16.5 million.
Average crew member salary: $7.66 an hour.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 2.2 million hours or 1038 years.
2. TARGET
CEO Gregg Steinhafel’s total compensation: $19.7 millionSales floor team member: $8.29.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 2.4 million hours or 1,143 years.
1. YUM! BRANDS
CEO David Novak’s total compensation: $20.4 million.
Average KFC / Pizza Hut / Taco Bell crew member: $7.50.
How long a crew member would have to work to make CEO annual pay: 2.7 million hours or 1,308 years.
