On Oct. 20, Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump staged a photo op at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania– a key battleground state where both he and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are attempting to win over voters in the final weeks before the Nov. 5 Election Day. Trump appeared to make fries and serve customers coming through the drive-thru window.
“This is fun, I could do this all day,” Trump said after passing a bag to a customer. “I wouldn’t mind this job.”
There are approximately 3.6 million fast food workers in the U.S., who earn an average of $30,110 per year. Many took to social media to voice their frustration with Trump cosplaying the work of millions of Americans.
Trump answered questions from the press through the drive-thru window, though he did not say whether he would support raising the federal minimum wage when asked. On Tuesday, Harris for the first time said that she would support raising the minimum wage to $15.
According to the HuffPost, Harris also said she supported a $15 federal minimum wage during her 2020 presidential campaign.
“At least $15 an hour, but we’ll work with Congress, right? That’s something that is going through Congress,” Harris said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the federal minimum wage has remained $7.25 per hour since 2009.
As Reckon reported earlier this week, myths about who holds fast food jobs depict the industry as after-school work held by teenagers taking on part-time hours. However, data published by the National Employment Law Project reveals that 70% of fast food workers are 20 or older, and in 2021, less than one-third were between the ages of 16 and 19.
Employees say their jobs require more than “flipping burgers,” instead having to balance multiple tasks and provide customer service, often for low wages while managing poor working conditions and operating in understaffed locations.
“Why do so many people choose to put up with this? Because some choices aren’t really choices, Emily Guendelsberger, a journalist and former fast food employee, wrote in Vox in 2019. “In my experience, most people are willing to make immense sacrifices to keep their children safe and happy. In a country with a moth-eaten social safety net, health care tied to employment, and few job quality differences between working at McDonald’s, Burger King, or Walmart, corporations have long since figured out that workers will put up with nearly anything if it means keeping their jobs.”
A 2023 report by the California nonprofit Economic Roundtable found that the fast food industry has the largest proportion of workers living in poverty, which researchers found was driven by low wages and difficulty in getting full-time hours. In California alone, 1 in 17 homeless individuals work in fast food, according to the report.
Cyann Petersen, 22, is a Sonic drive-in server in Oklahoma, earning $7.75 an hour. She typically works 36 hours per week, though her hours were recently cut after taking two weeks off for an emergency surgery. Since then, she’s only been scheduled 16 hours a week.
“I went from 36 hours a week to 16 hours a week and that being on my check, it does not pay enough. It really doesn’t. There was no way. I have step kids and they [the managers] were still not being understanding of what was going on,” she told Reckon.
Petersen’s daily tasks consist of preparing orders, taking payment and delivering food to customers. While her position includes tips, she says it isn’t much.
“If it’s on a coupon day, or a promotional day, I’m getting like, $9 max that day,” she said. Petersen said she understands that customers are trying to save money and maybe don’t have extra money to give, but the situation sets her back financially.
“I can’t survive with that. I really can’t,” she said.
Physical and emotional abuse at work
The rise of the “Karen” stereotype has become a household meme, describing (usually) white, middle-aged women exhibiting entitlement and often racism in fits of rage. These viral videos gained popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and often depict verbal and sometimes
But Karen-like behavior is more than a meme, with fast food employees experiencing outbursts from customers in the real world. A 2021 study by Black Box Intelligence, a restaurant industry analytics firm, found that 60% of restaurant workers suffered from emotional abuse and disrespect from customers that year, and 78% reported it impacted their mental health.
In November 2021, McDonald’s workers across California hosted a strike against unsafe work conditions. Jasmina Alfaro, who worked at a Los Angeles McDonald’s location, told the Los Angeles Daily News about the violence she’s faced on the job.
“We have been robbed at gunpoint, beaten, bitten and threatened just for trying to do our jobs,” Alfaro said. “Only after we held a protest at our store did management provide a security solution. But that is not enough.”
Petersen said that her coworker, a minor, recently had to press charges against a drunk male customer who harassed her.
“It’s not average that we get a weirdo, but it’s maybe every other month,” she said, adding that everyone in the industry has encountered similar situations.
She told Reckon that she urges people to be kind to employees because “you never know what they’re going through.”
“A few times a customer has apologized to me for being rude because of my ‘kill them with kindness attitude’ and I always forgive them because we all have our days and I totally get that,” Petersen said. “Most don’t [apologize] these days which makes the job suck even more.”
Unions, protests, and legal protection for fast food workers
As reports of workplace violence and wage theft mounted, fast food workers began organizing for change. Their efforts have led to significant victories, particularly in California, where new laws are reshaping the industry.
The rise of violence against employees has caused a movement to bring about legal protections to ensure their safety, with California at the epicenter of this fight.
During the pandemic, fast food workers in Los Angeles County were more at risk of contracting COVID-19, faced increased difficulty in working conditions, and didn’t receive the protection they were entitled to, according to a 2022 report by the UCLA Labor Center.
Half of fast food workers surveyed in the report said they had experienced verbal abuse, with one-third reporting they had faced threats, racial slurs, or assault. Additionally, almost two-thirds of employees experienced wage theft and more than half faced health and safety hazards on the job, with 43% becoming injured. Wage theft occurs when employers withhold earned, such as compensation or breaks.
“Fast-food workers have shown up every day of the COVID-19 pandemic, risking our lives to keep our stores open and our communities fed,” Angelica Hernandez, a Los Angeles McDonald’s employee, told UCLA. “The companies we work for have called us essential, but this report shows they think we’re disposable and that they’ve decided keeping us in unsafe and unsanitary conditions is worth it for higher corporate profits.”
In response to years of unfair conditions, the industry has begun to unionize. In February, California fast food workers launched a first-of-its-kind minority union representing hundreds of McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr. and Subway employees. The California Fast Food Workers Union lists its goals as increasing the minimum wage by 3.5% over the next three years and establishing rules to ensure workers are scheduled enough hours to sustain themselves.
In September 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation increasing the fast food workers’ minimum wage to $20 an hour and created a Fast Food Council for workers to have a voice in setting working condition policies and health and safety standards.
A year later, the governor’s office reported there were more fast food jobs in the state than ever before, including 11,000 new jobs created in the four months after he signed the bill.
“What’s good for workers is good for business, and as California’s fast food industry continues booming every single month our workers are finally getting the pay they deserve. Despite those who peddled lies about how this would doom the industry, California’s economy and workers are again proving them wrong,” Newsom said in an August 2024 statement.
Opposition to the raise warned that increasing pay would trickle down to customers.
“Every day you see headlines of restaurant closures, employee job losses and hours cut, and rising food prices for consumers,” a spokesperson for the International Franchise Association told socialist magazine Jacobin a few months after it went into effect.
A report by Harvard University published on Oct. 9 found that raising the minimum wage in California did not have unintended consequences on staffing, scheduling or wage theft, and The Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley found that menu prices increased by only 3% to 7%, the equivalent of 15 cents on a $4 burger.
Starbucks employees have also fought to unionize around the country. According to its website, Starbucks Workers United now represents 500 stores and over 10,500 employees since its first store, a location in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize in 2021.
According to CNBC, the latest store to unionize, a location in Bellingham, Wash., recently sent a letter to the company’s new CEO, Brian Niccol, explaining their reason for organizing.
“Starbucks’ ultimate success in rebuilding hinges on whether we as baristas have the support we need to do our jobs well so that, in turn, we can ensure customers enjoy their Starbucks experience and keep coming back,” they wrote.