McDonald’s To Employees: ‘Just Sign Up For Food Stamps’ [Video]

“If you’re a McDonald’s employee, you probably qualify for food stamps,” is the advice that McDonald’s is giving to its own employees.

McDonald’s has, for better or worse, become the battleground for the wage fairness issue (even though they’re hardly the only business trucking in unlivable wages). Though the company has taken a lot of criticism lately for low wages and cutting hours, they say that if you’re having trouble making ends meet, you should seek federal assistance.

Per The Atlantic:

“A fast-food worker advocacy group has a recording of a phone call made by a worker to the McDonald’s employee helpline, called McResources. The operator more or less told Nancy Salgado, an McDonald’s employee of 10 years, that signing her and her children up for food stamps should be no problem.

” ‘You would most likely be eligible for SNAP benefits,’ the operator says. ‘You know it’s a federal program, the federal money comes down the states, and the states administer it,’ the operator adds, making it crystal clear that Salgado would be taking federal money. Not paying your workers enough, then directing them to federal programs like food stamps is apparently one of the ways that McDonald’s inflates its hefty profits.”

Salgado, by the way, is the same McDonald’s employee who confronted corporate boss Jeff Stratton earlier this month to ask why she hasn’t had a raise in 10 years. She was arrested for “interrupting” his meeting.

The McResources call also dovetails nicely with a report from last week which found that more than half of fast food workers do indeed seek federal aid to supplement their wages. The estimated cost the public carries is about $7 billion per year, which is about the same amount that McDonald’s recorded in profit last year.

This all sounds great (and by “great,” I mean “infuriating”), but if I can have one gripe about this story, it’s this: The fair wage advocacy group Low Pay Is Not OK took Salgado’s call and turned it into the video posted below, and even the un-trained ear can tell that it’s heavily edited. Stay above board, advocacy groups. Seriously.

[Image: Wikimedia Commons]