Getting poor, minority children hooked on junk food is just one way the fast-food industry is getting over on us. Workers in the fast-food industry get paid among the lowest wages of any occupation. In New York, most fast-food occupations pay an average of around $9.00 an hour. This is why, as a recent study from the University of California-Berkeley reported, seven billion dollars per year are spent nationally on public assistance programs for fast-food workers. The wages these workers bring home simply are not enough to provide basic necessities such as food and health care for themselves or their families. A report from the organization Demos found that fast-food CEOs make more than 1,000 times the average fast-food worker’s wage, by far the largest gap in any industry. So as the taxpayer provides the food stamps and Medicaid that fast-food workers are forced to rely on due to their meager wages, the industry’s executives are laughing all the way to the bank.
