McJobs Are the Future: Why You Should Care What Fast Food Workers Earn

The Working Poor Are Real, And Some Earn More Than Minimum Wage According to the Census bureau, 7.2 percent of American workers live below the poverty line. In other words, they far outnumber the ranks of minimum wage earners. Remember, even McDonald’s cashiers earn closer to $7.72 an hour on average, according to Glassdoor.

Fast Food Workers Are Not All Suburban Teenagers No, not every low-pay worker is a kid assembling Big Macs between classes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median fast food worker (technically referred to as a combined food preparation and serving worker) is about 29. A full 40 percent of minimum wage-earners, meanwhile, are in their prime working years of 25 to 54. Sure, some are married moms working part-time so they can see more of their kids. But plenty aren’t.

Promotions Don’t Mean Much If You’re Still Poor
Yes, low-pay workers might get raises, but they’re not necessarily big. The Employment Policies Institute found that the median annual pay hike for minimum-wage earners was 10 percent. About a third didn’t get any kind of raise at all. And this was during the 90s. In today’s slow economy, the situation is presumably worse.