If you think that federal minimum wage isn’t enough to survive on you’re probably right. Which is why McDonald’s is advising their employees to get a second job before even considering a monthly budget.
Recently, Visa partnered with the Wealth Watchers Corp to create a, “Practical Money Skills” journal for McDonald’s employees. Aside from basic money saving tips, the booklet also offers preset budget for how low-income workers can survive on a monthly basis.
According to Bloomberg, the sample budget provided assumes employees with two jobs earn at least $2,060 a month, or $12.88 an hour, for a 40-hour week. However, that estimate is found to be untrue with U.S. fast-food cooks earning an average of $9.03 an hour according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the Visa provided budget, there is also a figure of $0 for heating expenses, $600 for rent and a $100 cable/phone bill. After adding the bare essentials, the sample budget estimates that workers will have $800 left for month spending.
“Sure, you have $800 left over after you spent no dollars to heat up your fourth-floor walk-up in Narnia’s badlands, but the majority of that will be spent on, you know, keeping yourself from starving to death,” said Neetzan Zimmerman in the Gawker article, ‘McDonald’s to Employees: Get a Second Job or Drop Dead.’ “
McDonald’s has since issued a statement claiming that the samples in the journal “are generic examples and are intended to help provide a general outline of what an individual budget may look like.”
Follow Courtney M. Fowler on Twitter: @Court_Nation
