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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Fast Food - Vast Profits

America’s restaurant industry employs nearly one in 10 Americans. Fast-food workers feed their families on a pittance while the big corporations resist fair pay and sick leave. The National Restaurant Association, was celebrating a string of political victories blocking state minimum wage increases and preempting local sick day laws. The restaurant business are at war with the industry’s workers.

The NRA boasted that its lobbyists had stopped minimum wage increases in 27 out of 29 states in 2013. In Connecticut, which increased its state minimum wage, a raise in the base pay for tipped workers such as waitresses and bartenders vanished in the final bill. A similar scenario unfolded in New York State: It increased its minimum wage, but the NRA’s last-minute lobbying derailed raising the pre-tip wage at restaurants and bars.

The NRA’s lobbying also blocked a dozen states this year from passing laws that would require earned paid sick leave, which is what New York City and Portland, Oregon adopted. It  boasted that six states, including Florida, passed NRA-backed laws that preemptively ban localities from granting earned and paid employee sick time.

Most Americans are unaware that millions of people who work in the industry—especially the 2.5 million fast-food preparers and servers who earn an average of $8.74 an hour, according to federal labor statistics—are not just teens in their first job, but adults with families to support. Many do not know there’s a separate minimum wage for tipped workers, $2.13 an hour, that hasn’t changed in 22 years—although 32 states have raised it slightly.

The NRA routinely tells legislators its industry cannot afford to pay better wages or basic benefits yet almost every national chain—from fast-food outfits such as Yum! Brands Inc. (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC) and McDonald’s to full-service dining such as Darden Restaurants Inc. (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Capital Grille)—have reported higher revenues, profits, margins and cash holdings to Wall Street despite the recession. McDonalds had 7.8 percent revenue growth over the past decade.  Yum had 10-year revenues of 8.7 percent, and Darden’s 10-year revenues grew 9.1 percent. The NRA was predicting another profitable year, where revenues would be up 4 percent compared to 2012. “Restaurant and foodservice sales are expected to reach a record high of $660.5 billion this year,” another 2013 revenue forecast said.


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