YOU'RE PAYING FOR MCDONALD'S $35 MILLION CORP JET AND THEIR EMPLOYEES HEALTH CARE, FOOD STAMPS, AND OTHER SOCIAL SAFETY NET BENEFITS & Workers at biggest fast food companies need billions in public assistance 25&15OKT13

GO ahead, eat that nasty fast food from mcdonald's. Not only are you paying too much for food that isn't good for you, you are also paying for the social safety net mcdonald's employee's qualify for and receive because they are not payed a living wage. Surprised? DUH! Who did you think was providing for these people and their families????? From Daily Kos....
Daily Kos and Campaign for America’s Future are calling on McDonald's CEO Donald Thompson to cancel his order for another corporate jet and instead pay employees a living wage.

According to a recent report, the McDonald's Corporation tops the list of fast-food companies whose employees are recipients of public assistance­—costing the public over $1.2 billion because they pay low-wages with little to no opportunity for benefits.

Now, it’s come to light that the McDonald's Corporation bought a $35-million-dollar luxury jet which costs at least $2400 an hour to operate. Yet their employees make so little they rely on public assistance just to get by.

Keep fighting,
Rachel Colyer
Campaign Director, Daily Kos

Tue Oct 15, 2013 at 10:28 AM PDT

Workers at biggest fast food companies need billions in public assistance

by Laura ClawsonFollow for Daily Kos Labor

Walmart isn't the only corporate giant relying on government assistance to make up for the low, low wages it pays its workers. According to a new report from the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center, 52 percent of front-line fast food workers are on some form of public assistance, at a cost of nearly $7 billion a year. And the 10 largest fast food companies account for $3.8 billion of that, the National Employment Law Project estimates. The UC-Berkeley study only looks at participation in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; if it included all government programs, such as child-care subsidies and reduced price school lunches, the total would be higher. That's because fast food restaurants pay wages so low that even the families of full-time fast food workers rely on public programs—the median income for people working more than 10 hours a week 27 or more weeks per year in nonmanagerial fast food jobs is $8.69 an hour.
The companies benefiting from all that low-wage labor and the food stamps and health care assistance needed for workers to get by are doing just fine. Last year, the 10 largest fast food companies earned $7.44 billion in profits, paid their top executives $52.7 million, and distributed $7.7 billion in dividends and buybacks, according to NELP. Meanwhile:

attribution: National Employment Law Project

Like Walmart, McDonald's and Taco Bell and Domino's are profiting directly off of government programs for low-income people. Taxpayers are subsidizing wages at these immensely profitable companies, while Republicans in Congress block the minimum wage increase that would raise many fast food workers out of poverty.

Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor on Tue Oct 15, 2013 at 10:28 AM PDT.

Also republished by In Support of Labor and Unions and Daily Kos. 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/15/1247468/-Workers-at-biggest-fast-food-companies-need-billions-in-public-assistance?detail=email