Want a job, and don’t care particularly where it is? Then head down
to your local McDonald’s: The fast food giant today announced plans to
hire nearly 50,000 new employees on April 19, as part of a promotional
campaign against the disparaging term ‘McJob.’
McDonald’s has long cringed at the popular slang phrase, which
refers to low-paid service industry positions that offer little in the
way of benefits or long-term career prospects, and protested the word’s
addition to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2003.
As Reuters reports:
Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s said in a statement that its
April hiring event is an opportunity to highlight that “a McJob is one
with career growth and endless possibilities.”[McDonald’s spokewoman Ashlee] Yingling said many of McDonald’s top executives and franchisees worked their way up the company.
The new hires would increase the company’s U.S. workforce by 7%,
though industry observers caution that fast food franchises often ramp
up their workforce for the busy summer months by hiring a similar number
of seasonal employees. McDonald’s says the April hires will be a mix of
permanent and temporary employees.
McDonald’s hourly employees often make more $8 an hour. The health care plans they receive recently came under criticism from Slate
as “ersatz insurance” and “bait-and-switch schemes,” after the
Department of Health and Human Services granted McDonald’s an exception
from health care reform legislation. (via Reuters)
