It's Not just fast food ...
Fast
food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are
seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities
Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are
also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public
assistance each year. And as in fast food, we're talking about large,
profitable chains: Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, LongHorn
Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and more; Dine Equity, the parent company of
IHOP and Applebee's; Bloomin' Brands, the parent company of Outback
Steakhouse, Carraba's Italian Grill, and more; Brinker International,
the parent company of Chili's; and Cracker Barrel. Workers at these five
chains need an estimated $1.4 billion from programs including the
Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance
Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and heating and
housing assistance.
These five companies spend millions on lobbying-with one key priority being to keep the tipped worker minimum wage at $2.13 an hour, where it's been stuck for decades. Meanwhile:
[...]
The ROC report frames public assistance to workers at these restaurant chains as taxpayer subsidies for the chains' low wages; it's a powerful argument, but one that the respected economist Arindrajit Dube is arguing doesn't hold up as applied to programs that aren't tied to labor force participation or hours worked.
I'm not sure I'm 100 percent on board with Dube's argument, but in any case we don't need the taxpayer subsidy argument to see the hundreds of millions of dollars in public assistance needed by workers at these profitable chains as an indictment of their wages and labor practices. It's as simple as this: If a profitable company is paying its workers hundreds of millions of dollars a year less than they need for the most basic medical care, food, and housing, that company is a driving force in the low-wage economy. You don't need to believe that the public assistance going to their underpaid workers is a direct subsidy to the companies to see something wrong with that.
These five companies spend millions on lobbying-with one key priority being to keep the tipped worker minimum wage at $2.13 an hour, where it's been stuck for decades. Meanwhile:
[...]
The ROC report frames public assistance to workers at these restaurant chains as taxpayer subsidies for the chains' low wages; it's a powerful argument, but one that the respected economist Arindrajit Dube is arguing doesn't hold up as applied to programs that aren't tied to labor force participation or hours worked.
I'm not sure I'm 100 percent on board with Dube's argument, but in any case we don't need the taxpayer subsidy argument to see the hundreds of millions of dollars in public assistance needed by workers at these profitable chains as an indictment of their wages and labor practices. It's as simple as this: If a profitable company is paying its workers hundreds of millions of dollars a year less than they need for the most basic medical care, food, and housing, that company is a driving force in the low-wage economy. You don't need to believe that the public assistance going to their underpaid workers is a direct subsidy to the companies to see something wrong with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment