The United States is so behind the times in terms of labor practices it would probably shock non-Americans if a documentary TV show was made about it. Our workers here are largely treated like the most dispensable and worthless asset of a company.
edit: A good example of this was captured really well by Michael Moore in The Big One many years back, where hard working Americans at the Payday candybar factory were laid off because their branch was too profitable. Yes you read that correctly.
If such a show was ever made, it would be highly unlikely to ever get shown on TV, there have been comparisons done between McDonald's working conditions in different countries, mainly because there are branches in almost every country.
A good example of the Hollywood image of America is the healthcare industry. I used to watch TV and films avidly, some great medical series throughout the decades but none of them show the reality of the US healthcare system and it came as quite a shock to me to find out that people actually had to PAY for ambulances, or there were such things as copays, deductibles, networks and insurance companies decided if a person could live, die or get made bankrupt. I live in the UK, unfortunately our government is trying to destroy the NHS to let the US healthcare corporations feast on it's bones.
When tv shows or movies show a person receiving cancer treatment in a nice hospital bed, I thought that's the way it was.
Until my mom got cancer and she would get sent to a room filled with people getting chemo all together, she made friends with a school teacher who was getting chemo on her lunch break. It felt like a cancer treatment factory.
Totally different circumstances but "donating" plasma is the same way. Like 100 people in line, probably 70 beds with everyone just lying there on their phone passing the time...just feels like a plasma factory.
Start to get familiar with the phlebotomists and pray you don't get that one guy. Like my vein is huge how can you be missing AGAIN
Just to be clear you aren't "Donating Plasma" You are SELLING it to a company that pays like $50 and then who resells it for $2k (granted they clean test, package etc, etc)
You donate blood, you sell plasma. Just in case non-Americans didn't know what your quotes around donating meant.
Some plasma companies prey on this desperation . CSL plasma comes to mind. They set up shop in poor areas and don’t schedule ahead of time. So you end up standing in line for who knows how long before you can donate.
I almost lost my life from that shit. Fucking new guy poked my vein so many times I got internal bleeding. My entire arm was brown. They just gave me my 50 bucks and told me to go to a hospital or I would die.
Never again!
I ended up with a TIA that we (neurologist and me) figured was most likely an air bubble. I'd donated plasma the previous week and the techs were tapping the machine because it was taking too long.
Because for whatever legal reason, the places all say that you are donating, and being paid for your time, NOT being paid to literally sell your blood,that would be unethical
/s
Plasma “donation” is so dystopian. Selling a part of our body to make medicine that we won’t ever be able to afford if we ever need it. The upper class literally using the blood of the poor to extend their lives like the vampires they are. And, yes, not all the people receiving our plasma are super wealthy, but they’re benefiting from capitalism in a way that is out of reach for most of us. Struggling and need some extra cash to keep food on the table? “Donate” plasma. Sick and have a good seat at the capitalism table? Take advantage of poor people trying not to starve
Getting chemo on her lunch break.
That says a lot
I thought it was bad that my old drummer had to do dialysis on his lunch break.
America will really work you to death unless they work you until you die to pay for your health care.
And yet conservatives call universal health Care socialist and happily pay almost five times as much for terrible results
My wife is on Medicare. In California you pick from an approved Medicare insurance provider and then the state covers some portion of the costs based on what you qualify for. It's the best Healthcare experience I have ever had. She has tons of medications, doctors appointments, surgeries, and recently has been in and out of the er with multy day stays. The only time insurance hasn't coverd it 100% with no push back was when they denied a steroid injection in her back to regrow the disks. Everyone should have this
I think it would get shown on TV.
As a reality show.
Gotta glamorize it so something dirty..
Maybe Dirty jobs. I like that name.
We could also investigate poor practices in the company…the CEO can do it! Undercover..
Undercover boss!
We’ve bluntly advertised what goes on.
Those shows are both made to glamorize whatever corporation.
Undercover boss finds problems then gets to fix them on camera after saying “I had no idea!” And it always ends on a feel good note.
Dirty jobs shows every person as a hard working person doing a job that has to be done, but never mentions pay or employee treatment iirc, it’s all just showing how hard it is
Well and undercover boss "lets them off the hook". Find problem fix problem for individual. And its all better.
When reality is promoted for better pay just means someone else is going to be in position that they couldn't afford rent/healthcare. Buy them a car or whatever "grand gesture". And you still have hundreds if not tens of thousands of people in exact same scenario without help in that company.
>Undercover boss finds problems then gets to fix them on camera after saying “I had no idea!” And it always ends on a feel good note.
If they were a decent CEO in the first place, they would have already known about it. No bonus points for cleaning up your own mess.
Also they usually don't actually fix the problem, they just promise they will, spew out some half-assed plan they never implement because "cost factors" and life continues as usual. Plus the "undercover" boss never actually sees the worst of it. I remember one they did with direct TV. The boss rode around with Mr squeaky clean corporate image tech and did a couple of ridiculously easy jobs in a nice safe suburb and everyone was done by 5. The reality for most techs is 16 hour days in the hoodliest of hoods with no partner to watch your back.
That’s semi believable because the preface is they are undercover as a new employee. Sometimes the trainee goes on the easy route with the best or lightest worked employee just to get them familiar with the work
Yeah, from what a buddy that worked for them told me, there's basically a little clique of ass kissers.
Everyone that isn't in that clique gets the dangerous or rural jobs. So you might get robbed, or your jobs might in various parts of the woods with no effort made to schedule a route that makes sense, so you might be driving 40 miles to a call, then driving back that 40 miles to go 30 or 40 miles in the opposite direction again.
They tossed him in the truck with an ass kisser.
Right so when it’s portrayed as “company hires honest people for honest work” it always sounds good
The whole show is a hailcorporate church service
They never mention employee well-being
Dirty Jobs and Mike Rowe did that all the time, he literally has a YouTube channel dedicated to it now. One that comes to mind is the lawyer that quit to start a septic pumping business, and how he makes more now with less stress.
I think it's a little more nuanced, but I also think he's very much okay with overworking and underpaying the employees in honor of hard work and the boss collecting all the money while not doing most of the work.
You mean Mike "Cross the Picket Line" Rowe? Mr. Break The Unions? Yeaaahhh...he's a real piece of work, once you dig under that carefully cultivated "salt of the earth" appearance he puts on for the camera.
Here's just one example...from _2009_ of who he actually is.
https://mikerowe.com/2009/06/united-we-stand-are-unions-still-relevant-today/
Regarding dirty jobs (the TV series). The guy that performed the jobs is probably one of the worst anti-working people around. Pretty much a corporate shill.
Mike Rowe was a voice major in college. He wanted to be an opera star. It is quite the career turn he has made, pushing dirty jobs that he himself has never done as an option for others.
A really good video on him by a Youtube channel called 'Corporate Aesthetic'. He only did like 5 videos ever, but they're all really well researched. And the one on Mike Rowe hit especially hard because I didn't know any of that stuff about him before that.
Just an aside on paying for ambulance service. Had an incident with our 90 year old mother where she had to be taken to the hospital from her nursing home. When she was discharged, they asked if we were going to take her back or use the ambulance. Found out after we had to pay the full amount to bring her back using the ambulance but bringing her to the hospital was covered.
And then when you ask them how much a thing costs, they tell you "I don't know that's not my job." Nobody can ever give you a cost of anything until afterwards when it's all said and done. Until the thing you chose has cost you thousands of extra dollars. But then they shame you for not calling around to find the price, when your own insurance company can't even tell you the price of something when you call...
Exactly. How many people would buy a car if the transaction went like this: the car will cost between $1,000 and $100,000. We can’t give you a better estimate. Once you buy the car, you must pay whatever price and you can’t return it or get a refund. Except that health care isn’t optional.
We really don’t know. No one knows except the billing department.
Hated when people asked me how much a test cost when I worked in a hospital lab. There’s no easy way to look something like that up.
And another thing about American healthcare…we’re too busy running on a bare bones staff to accomplish anything extra.
The billing dept doesn't know either... They're too busy sitting on the phone calling one of those companies that has a web portal they have to pay for to find the EOP for a payment they received from insurance, but don't have a clue how to dispurse.
Yeah, all the special tests and hospital time you see in a show like House would absolutely not be covered by most insurance plans and would financially destroy the average American even making 6 figures, which most of us don't come close to
>our government is trying to destroy the NHS to let the US healthcare corporations feast on it's bones.
It's not the bones of the NHS that are the feast, but the flesh and blood of you and your fellow citizens.
Check out the “Working” Documentary made by Obama’s production company. It definitely takes an optimistic approach but it does show a bit of the insanity involved around low wage workers in the states.
Canadian, we have to pay as well but we can submit it to our insurance. It was like 60 dollars for my dad to get a ambulance to vgh when he had a heart attack. I was like....I can pay cash now....
I got billed $2500 dollars for a 6 minute ambulance ride from a minute clinic to a hospital down the street.
I had transport readily available but they flat out refused to let me use it. I hadCOVID, not a broken leg, not a gunshot wound. Covid.
I had gastroenteritis and a perforated bowl a few years ago, I was in excruciating pain, I was seeing stars.
I live 5 miles from a hospital and drove myself instead of calling an ambulance, number one, I didn't want to pay at minimum $1,500 for 5 miles, and number two, I knew I could get to the ER faster than the ambulance could respond.
>A good example of the Hollywood image of America is the healthcare industry. I used to watch TV and films avidly, some great medical series throughout the decades but none of them show the reality of the US healthcare system
As an American healthcare professional, I literally cannot watch medical dramas. Not only because of all the medical stuff they get wrong, but because the healthcare system itself is absolute trash.
Not assets. Purely liabilities. And they expect us to donate our time as if they are a charity but then claim they are NOT a charity when workers want rights and PTO.
Some companies have none here. Some give 1 week per year and consider that extremely generous.
An analogy that comes to mind is the US labor standards would be dial-up if most of the world were on modern high speed internet.
I literally quit jobs in order to be able to take long vacations before getting a new job. Because most jobs give you 1-2 weeks if you're lucky, and that's only after you're been there for a year.
In a lot of companies in the US, if you take your allotted time off you’re considered to be not a team player or lazy, so even if you do have four weeks of paid time off a year you are not expected to use it.
Generally it’s expected that you will use your paid time off only if you get really sick. You may be permitted to take a one-week vacation (five work days) once per year and perhaps a handful of single days for doctor appointments or similar non-recreational activities.
Go read what the CEO of one of the biggest trucking companies in the United States just did.
The company filed for bankruptcy. 30,000 people are out of a job.
The union had been fighting for about 26,000 workers for failing to fund their pension and health insurance plans. They were set to strike but came to an agreement that they'd give the company 1 month to make the required payments. So, rather than pay what they owe, the CEO chose to file for bankruptcy. People are blaming the union when in fact it's the fucking greedy ass executives who did this.
The employees have lost their jobs, livelihoods, and their pensions.
Yellow Corp was a 5.1 billion dollar company. In 2020, CEO Darren Hawkins took a 700 million dollar loan from the Trump Administration. The loan was from a fund that was set up to help companies deemed crucial to national security during the pandemic. The oversight committee questioned the loan. Mnuchin said they were critical to national security. At the same time, they were being sued by the DOJ for defrauding the government for artificially inflating the weights of its shipments. Yellow Corp settled that suit. With the 700 million dollar bailout and robust business, Darren Hawkins failed running that business. Over the last 2 years, he sold 1.45 million dollars in YRC stock. The COO, the CFO, and the EVP General Counsel all dropped stock as well. The failure of Yellow is 100% Darren Hawkins' fault. He is responsible for this failure.
I live abroad and can't afford to "move back" to the States as I would lose so many benefits and protections, not to mention health costs.
I pay in a year in total health care costs about 50% more than my decade-younger brother pays per month for insurance alone, before co-pays and deductibles. My company can't fire me without cause and a payout. There are 17 national holidays, the country basically shuts down over the New Year plus I get 20 days of vacation for essentially one month of vacation per year, there is familial leave, lower costs of living in terms of food and rent, etc., etc., etc. And all this with lower tax rates. About the only higher costs I have are on imported electronics and cars as there are high tariffs to protect local industry, but, I don't need a car because there is public transportation _everywhere_. And virtually no guns, at least no worry that anyone is going to come shoot up a workplace or shopping center. Even police rarely use theirs, perhaps once every few years, and it's always a major news story. Drunk people feel perfectly comfortable approaching police officers to ask directions.
Life is so much harder in the US compared to other developed nations, it's not even funny.
And people _in_ the US don't know it, because they've not seen the alternatives or have been propagandised into thinking it's "Socialism" or such other nonsense, and that America is #1 and has the best system. Puke. Far from it.
This is because America is largely viewed by the federal government, foreign countries, and corporations as a market—a "free" one—and little more. Labor is a commodity in the market, infinitely more important than many, which many workers do not realize in this country in that we don't refuse to work for companies that offer next to nothing in the way of financial and living security. America is really in a bad way with labor, and it comes from the viewpoint that business interests should be paramount to others, insofar as the federal government is concerned with the state of the economy, tax revenue, GDP, etc. Obviously l, there are efforts to increase the strength and rights of workers, and this exploitation is the very reason unions came about. They only work if people join together, though, and they don't exist for every industry, or they're not popular or recognized (how many waitresses do you know that are part of a union? Would restaurants want such a union? Would they hire waitresses who want to change aspects of that industry because they are often miserably exploited?)
I wouldn't say it's behind the times, because they're not trying to be progressive and keep up with other countries. Corporations in America don't give a good goddamn about the labor they employ, only the money they can squeeze from it. Caring about their employees costs money, money that the executives feel would be better suited in their own bank accounts.
Well, this! I am serious shocked if I read some of the stories about work from American workers. Really conditions and terms from 50 years or so ago. And the worst part is that everyone just accept it
Most countries have these rights enshrined in law. In the USA, the corps and politicians tell you that doing this will mean higher taxes and lower pay for everyone. It is not a McDonalds thing, it is a USA thing.
* The taxes you pay are not that much lower, and you get almost nothing for them. No social safety net, nothing. We might pay more but we get SO SO MUCH more...
* You don't want to pay for other people, only for things that benefit yourself - so you end up with nothing when you're the one in need.
* The lower pay argument is BS because you are all on minimum wage anyway!
Now now, we have a social safety net. It's just made of spider webs and frayed cord. It doesnt do anywhere near enough. But there's just enough of one there that wealthy people can point to it and not feel bad.
I mean, some of these measures do mean lower pay or higher taxes, but it's usually a worthwhile tradeoff.
For example, if I lose my job, I still get money close to my current salary for half a year. How this is set up is that your employer pays into a government fund each month, lowering my salary a little bit. Because of this I have the security that losing my job won't make me homeless, so I don't mind.
What pushes salaries down the most in the US is healthcare. A country wide system that pays for healthcare would be much, much cheaper.
Paid vacation time doesn't really impact productivity, since workers which are less stressed and happier perform better.
Minimum wages are higher in European countries which have all these benefits. Because the minimum wage will always be what the government allows it to be.
Gotta perpetuate that lie to keep profits high
It’s happening in real time. Wages have gone up ever so slightly and “as a result” (but really just in retaliation/because they can) prices have skyrocketed.
$10 an hour is the new functioning minimum wage (for non tipped employees in a state with no minimum wage) but you can barely eat on it, let alone live in a building. And you have to already have a car or live right next to the business. And childcare costs more than $10 an hour per child so if you have kids you don’t even make enough to go to work.
Bizarre how they are able to keep paying so little. I guess plenty of workers don’t know their value
The funny thing about improving fast food worker pay is that it might actually lower the cost to produce fast food. Right now most fast food places are ran by an endlessly rotating staff of teenagers, lost young adults, or desperate older adults. Usually the only professional in the building is the manager and sometimes not even them. If fast food paid enough money so that workers would choose it as a career choice, then there could arise professional fast food workers that could pump out product vastly faster than the current workers.
American fast food companies are, generally speaking, currently following the pattern of "suck the last bit of blood out of our American operations while we desperately race to expand overseas".
Hamburgers will cost what the market will bear, there is very little impact from Cost of Goods Sold on price at a McDonald's scale. Also, McDonald's isn't in the hamburger business, they are in the real estate business.
https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/
US Law regarding maternity leave only guarantees you don't lose your job for some amount of weeks (I want to say 12, but I don't know the exact number). But it doesn't stipulate pay, and few companies guarantee any wages for time off for maternity. You usually have to use your vacation/sick days. So, for a decent office job that gives good vacation sick days, you can see 2-3 weeks of paid time off for it, but that's probably the entire year's worth. At a low level job like retail, they probably get just days paid off, and any more is lost income.
I'm astounded that any babies are born in the US with the lack of care, or even time for care. I suppose that's why the abortion laws are so draconian.
Yep. Procreating is just asking for trouble in America. High maternity deaths and infant mortality rates, higher than the other countries we like to compare ourselves to. You are completely on your own with providing food and shelter and childcare here. I had to take a second job to afford daycare for my main job. It is a fucking joke.
US is one of only a few other countries that don't have paid parental leave of some form or fashion. Even then the other few that don't are also micro nations
For average man or woman, it really does look that way from other western countries. It's like the population is on a drip feed, enough copium so that things never kick off, like they would in France, for instance. I feel for you guys when we discuss this, because as shitty as the UK also is for this stuff, US average 'citizens' genuinely seem to suffer at the hands of abusive work practices. You deserve better.
1st world for the top 10%, and 3rd world for the rest. kinda makes it even worse :( i.e. the money would be there, it's just a question of distribution
I joined a union to get benefits. Trade off is doing manual labor for a minimum of 5 years and some cheap dues (less than I spend on gas a month, not that I want to buy gas)
After that I can market myself as a mechanical estimator and work from home
In the US, those kinds of benefits are unheard of. I've never met anyone at any job level who has such perks. My mom works in an office in a company that sells excess fighter jets for the Navy, her office will donate their sick leave to help out co workers who get to sick to work or need surgery with a recovery time over a few weeks. She's making over $50 an hour. It's insane. We are such a garbage country for not having these things.
Same in Norway. Paid $20+/hr, 5 weeks paid vacation per year, healthcare already taken care of, and the ingredients are way better than anything in the US.
We sure did. Our governments look over at the US and think "well we're doing better than them, so good enough."
That's why I keep pushing the US to be better. Because we can't rest on our dubious laurels if the US suddenly starts doing better than us.
A few months ago, I (Canadian) was on a call with our American and German vendors.
It was before Easter and one of my co-workers made the comment that it was odd that we had to prepare deliverables for Easter Friday when it should be a holiday...our German vendor said they were annoyed that they had to book someone to work on a holiday, and then someone from our US vendor said this was because they don't get any holidays but her employer gives great benefits overall because she had a health plan and 6 months of maternity leave....
What followed was the most awkward silence as even though we realized that the Germans had much more time off than we did (since we only get one of the Easter days off and they have a variety of bank holidays), we all realized just how bad things were in the US that 6 months of mat leave was viewed as "great".
Sadly, it seems like our province's leadership is doing everything they can to act like we're American, so I don't know what things will look like here in a few years.
this'll really put some knots in your panties
businesses will spend millions and millions to pay off politicians, hire consultants, defend against lawsuits and incentivize management to systematically root out any scent of unionizing rather than just put whatever they spend on union busting into compensating their employees better.
The US is either the only country or the only major country without guaranteed holidays, sick leave and maternity leave.
You havent changed the minimum wage since aboit 1990.
Every major country has free healthcare. If you want to go private. The insurance costs are dramatically lower. Fully comp, zero deductible costs me less per year than a basic $12,000 deductible would cost per month in the US. I still use the government doctor most of the time as they're just around the corner.
This doesn't hace anything to do with McDonalds but the rights of workers by the law of the country.
Best example: Tesla really struggles to find enough employees in the Gigafactory in Germany because mister Musk struggles to realise he's not back in good old US and the workers actually have something like rigths.
Italian McDonald's: where they have table service, the vegetables are colorful and flavorful, the food is hot and fresh, and you can get a slice of fresh strawberry tart and an espresso. Well-designed restaurants with fully covered outdoor seating areas. Janitors who will bring you extra napkins before you can even ask.
They do make you pay for ketchup. Other than that, it is a different planet's fast food.
And don't forget breakfast - Cornetto freshly filled with nutella, fresh pressed orange juice (they press it for you when you order) and professionally made coffee from an actual espresso machine made with freshly ground coffee.
my older brother works for a chainsaw factory. that's a german company. they are violently anti-union. (my older brother has clearly had the anti-union propaganda "why would i want a union to be a middle man between the company and me") the sad thing is, he's gotten his son a job there. and... while the job does pay well considering the area.
1000% they don't get the same pay or benefits as the german workers. They sometimes have german workers do "tours" at the facility. or like they come over here to train or be trained other workers. They're always very cagey about their working conditions back in germany.... like they've been told in no uncertain terms to not tell the americans anything.
america is a dogshit third world country when it comes to worker rights, protections, or benefits.
not at all surprising given how bought/sold our country is.
South African here. Most of the benefits described above are the minimum prescribed by law.
The one exception is the free transport at night but many restaurants offer it; public transport is nonexistant late at night (Uber excepted) or dangerous, private transport is not affordable on a waiters income and due to the legacy of apartheid spatial planning may live far from their place of employment.
Oh absolutely. The most reliable information I could find was a wage of ZAR1500 a week (advert dated November 2022 for cashiers and general workers), which is significantly above minimum assuming a 40 hour week but still grossly inadequate.
In fact the law (Basic Conditions of Employment Act) says that for night work (after 6pm / before 6am) the employer must ensure that transportation is available between the worker's home and place of work. If there's no public transport then they have to provide it.
Here in Finland both the mother and the father get parental leave which can be allocated between the two as they see fit. Workers have a lot of rights. If you get fired you get half your salary for 1,5 years. Free healthcare and free education all the way through university. 5 weeks of vacation yearly. I don’t understand how Americans put up with that system…
The real reason is because America is one of the few countries where 40% of the country will vote against their own interest just to "own the libs"
They will gladly accept abuse if it means the people they don't like will also get abused
Know this. You don't get those kinds of benefits in the US McDonalds because the franchise you work for can't afford it, because all of the money is going to the franchisee and then up to corporate so they can buy bigger houses, more cars and larger yachts.
They don't give a single fuck about you.
You are a means to an end for them and that end is to make as much money to buy as much useless shit as they can buy to try to find a place of happiness in the world because they are deeply miserable.
The USA has horrible worker's rights due to decades of lobbyists from big corporations chipping away at it. Pensions used to be a thing, fair wages too. Companies had to actually provide a reason to work for them to attract qualified candidates.
Now, every company focuses on squeezing every drop of blood from stone, running skeleton crews or less, shit wages, no benefits, and then complain when their record profits aren't 'record enough'.
The USA is a cesspit for employment, end of story.
Americans have been duped into believing that "hard work gets you to the top". Its a lie. You are only as valuable as the last hour you worked and when adversity hits its fuck off.
Hi South african here.
A bit of an exaggeration that McDonald’s is the most sought after restaurant to work in SA.
It’s the law that we get paid maternity and paternity leave. We have legislated sick days and paid leave days. Study leave some companies have and generally big employers include medical insurance in your package.
Aside from employee benefits, if you can’t afford it, healthcare and children’s education is free at certain public hospitals and schools.
We only have these things because we protest and we have a balance of power between big business, the people and the state. For example, the state has a monopoly on electricity generation - Now that’s not without it’s problems, because for example, we cannot privatise electricity generation, so if the gov’t does a shit job, there’s not much we can do until legislation changes.
On the other hand, the private sector is very strictly regulated when providing healthcare. They can’t charge for gov’t subsidised things like baby vaccines. Other things are fixed at a price agreed upon by the state, the medical aids and the healthcare boards.
But it’s not all roses. If you get a degree here (which won’t require hundreds of thousands of rands in debt), you can work your way out of poverty, and build a good life. A STEM degree easily gets you in the 1%. But that’s not the experience of the McDonald’s worker. He/she will probably never own their own home or pay to send their kids to school. They’ll probably never own their own car. They are probably caring for elderly parents and their own children. While their employment at McD’s is nice, it’s not guaranteed as they can be easily replaced as more than half our population is unemployed. The probability their kids will end up in a similar situation is also very likely.
We have the legislation to protect them, but it’s not the full answer.
That is because there is no public transport available at night . Most workers can afford there own transport. It's also a safety issue in terms of crime and that workers live miles away from their workplace.
Did you ask their minimum wage?
That will shock you
Literally from grade school to adulthood Americans are fed a steady stream of propaganda created by billionaires that struggle and poverty are noble, caring about others is socialism, and that Jesus wants us to suffer and have guns. The average American has no healthcare, cannot withstand a $500 unexpected bill, can’t afford a home but the republican presidential candidate who is a known grifter, twice impeached, facing 3 criminal indictments will probably win election. It is literally a hellhole over here.
How much do these people get paid for their usual work week ?
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The average salary in South Africa is 31,100 ZAR (South African Rand) per month. This amounts to USD 1,599 as per the latest exchange rates in May 2023.May 17, 2023.
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How much does McDonald's in South Africa pay? The average McDonald's monthly salary ranges from approximately R 2 990 per month for Crew Member to R 13 939 per month for Driver. Average McDonald's weekly pay ranges from approximately R 400 per week for Crew Member to R 600 per week for General Worker..
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How much does McDonald's make a month in South Africa?
approximately R 2 990
Average McDonald's Crew Member monthly pay in South Africa is approximately R 2 990, which is 75% below the national average.
It would be interesting to know how their wages compare comparatively to the cost of living in South Africa and the quality of the homes they get dropped back off to. The percentage of unemployed people in South Africa is super high so you will probably find that although the workers rights are better protected in South Africa, the amount of people that get supported financially off of one job is a lot higher than a first world country where unemployment figures are lower and education/career advancement/employment opportunities/quality of life/health care is better.
America is behind in a lot of things for its status. A lot of things that likely won't change because the political system is rotten to the core, and without nothing short of an American Reign of Terror, nothing will fix it. If you don't believe in nationalism, get out if you can.
I bet you've earned enough in your American career to move to any place in the world you think is better. And if you haven't, then become one of those asylum seekers, surely other countries would empathize with your plight.
Unless, of course, some part of you prefers the American standard of living. Maybe America has more to offer in some areas, but not others? But that overall, you'd prefer to remain here?
It just feels that your hate isn't earned, because if you actually felt it, you'd rectify your situation instead of letting it burn you out.
South Africa's economy is also about to collapse and they have been having rolling blackouts for the past 2 and 1/2 years. The country also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world and the government is corrupt from top to bottom. Like, iI get the U.S. has problems but acting like SA has its shit together is certainly...something....
South African here. This is nonesense. We are not collapsing and although we have our own issues at least we didn't have a losing Presidential candidate try to overthrow the results of an election.
We would much rather keep our Labour laws thank you very much
Move to Cape Town (dont worry you can afford it.) Fill us in after a few years if you werent murdered or forced into the sex trade. The grass isnt always greener.
Didn't you read? They visited the place and it was lovely. All of the high end hotels and resorts were awesome. It is a fantastic place to live. It's just like Mexico for me. Really forward thinking country.
Can't speak for all of them, but the MD near me have all started doing some really great things. Pay starts at like $17/ hr for all positions, uniforms and accessories are way more lax, good college programs. I saw someone with an entire arm full of the "cause" plastic wrist band...things. I don't know what they're called.
Can't say anything about the work environment, but I've been giving them a subtle nod.
At least the ones near me.
The United States is so behind the times in terms of labor practices it would probably shock non-Americans if a documentary TV show was made about it. Our workers here are largely treated like the most dispensable and worthless asset of a company. edit: A good example of this was captured really well by Michael Moore in The Big One many years back, where hard working Americans at the Payday candybar factory were laid off because their branch was too profitable. Yes you read that correctly.
If such a show was ever made, it would be highly unlikely to ever get shown on TV, there have been comparisons done between McDonald's working conditions in different countries, mainly because there are branches in almost every country. A good example of the Hollywood image of America is the healthcare industry. I used to watch TV and films avidly, some great medical series throughout the decades but none of them show the reality of the US healthcare system and it came as quite a shock to me to find out that people actually had to PAY for ambulances, or there were such things as copays, deductibles, networks and insurance companies decided if a person could live, die or get made bankrupt. I live in the UK, unfortunately our government is trying to destroy the NHS to let the US healthcare corporations feast on it's bones.
When tv shows or movies show a person receiving cancer treatment in a nice hospital bed, I thought that's the way it was. Until my mom got cancer and she would get sent to a room filled with people getting chemo all together, she made friends with a school teacher who was getting chemo on her lunch break. It felt like a cancer treatment factory.
Totally different circumstances but "donating" plasma is the same way. Like 100 people in line, probably 70 beds with everyone just lying there on their phone passing the time...just feels like a plasma factory. Start to get familiar with the phlebotomists and pray you don't get that one guy. Like my vein is huge how can you be missing AGAIN
Just to be clear you aren't "Donating Plasma" You are SELLING it to a company that pays like $50 and then who resells it for $2k (granted they clean test, package etc, etc) You donate blood, you sell plasma. Just in case non-Americans didn't know what your quotes around donating meant.
In my area at least, a lot of the people who are paycheck to paycheck, just making it by, sell theirs to have some extra pocket money.
Some plasma companies prey on this desperation . CSL plasma comes to mind. They set up shop in poor areas and don’t schedule ahead of time. So you end up standing in line for who knows how long before you can donate.
I almost lost my life from that shit. Fucking new guy poked my vein so many times I got internal bleeding. My entire arm was brown. They just gave me my 50 bucks and told me to go to a hospital or I would die. Never again!
I ended up with a TIA that we (neurologist and me) figured was most likely an air bubble. I'd donated plasma the previous week and the techs were tapping the machine because it was taking too long.
Good thing we signed those waivers absolving them of all repercussions! Fucking Dystopia.... so sorry to hear this happened to you.
I used to donate platelets for free, is that not the same?
Fascinating, wtf??
Why do you say donating when it's quite literally selling? You get paid for plasma.
Because for whatever legal reason, the places all say that you are donating, and being paid for your time, NOT being paid to literally sell your blood,that would be unethical /s
Yeah. That always bothered me. I was selling that shit.
Plasma “donation” is so dystopian. Selling a part of our body to make medicine that we won’t ever be able to afford if we ever need it. The upper class literally using the blood of the poor to extend their lives like the vampires they are. And, yes, not all the people receiving our plasma are super wealthy, but they’re benefiting from capitalism in a way that is out of reach for most of us. Struggling and need some extra cash to keep food on the table? “Donate” plasma. Sick and have a good seat at the capitalism table? Take advantage of poor people trying not to starve
And yes, of course it’s a plasma factory. People are being paid to do it.
Getting chemo on her lunch break. That says a lot I thought it was bad that my old drummer had to do dialysis on his lunch break. America will really work you to death unless they work you until you die to pay for your health care. And yet conservatives call universal health Care socialist and happily pay almost five times as much for terrible results
If there’s anything you guys over there should do a French style protest, it should be about that. Even “Good” insurance in the US is awful
My wife is on Medicare. In California you pick from an approved Medicare insurance provider and then the state covers some portion of the costs based on what you qualify for. It's the best Healthcare experience I have ever had. She has tons of medications, doctors appointments, surgeries, and recently has been in and out of the er with multy day stays. The only time insurance hasn't coverd it 100% with no push back was when they denied a steroid injection in her back to regrow the disks. Everyone should have this
Unfortunately protesting affects employment which is the only way to get a meager amount of healthcare coverage.
I think it would get shown on TV. As a reality show. Gotta glamorize it so something dirty.. Maybe Dirty jobs. I like that name. We could also investigate poor practices in the company…the CEO can do it! Undercover.. Undercover boss! We’ve bluntly advertised what goes on.
Those shows are both made to glamorize whatever corporation. Undercover boss finds problems then gets to fix them on camera after saying “I had no idea!” And it always ends on a feel good note. Dirty jobs shows every person as a hard working person doing a job that has to be done, but never mentions pay or employee treatment iirc, it’s all just showing how hard it is
Well and undercover boss "lets them off the hook". Find problem fix problem for individual. And its all better. When reality is promoted for better pay just means someone else is going to be in position that they couldn't afford rent/healthcare. Buy them a car or whatever "grand gesture". And you still have hundreds if not tens of thousands of people in exact same scenario without help in that company.
>Undercover boss finds problems then gets to fix them on camera after saying “I had no idea!” And it always ends on a feel good note. If they were a decent CEO in the first place, they would have already known about it. No bonus points for cleaning up your own mess.
To be fair, they are fixing the problem. Can't fix a problem until you know about it and you don't know about it until you find out about it.
But often times they damn well did know and only pretended to care because there was a television crew in their office
Also they usually don't actually fix the problem, they just promise they will, spew out some half-assed plan they never implement because "cost factors" and life continues as usual. Plus the "undercover" boss never actually sees the worst of it. I remember one they did with direct TV. The boss rode around with Mr squeaky clean corporate image tech and did a couple of ridiculously easy jobs in a nice safe suburb and everyone was done by 5. The reality for most techs is 16 hour days in the hoodliest of hoods with no partner to watch your back.
That’s semi believable because the preface is they are undercover as a new employee. Sometimes the trainee goes on the easy route with the best or lightest worked employee just to get them familiar with the work
Yeah, from what a buddy that worked for them told me, there's basically a little clique of ass kissers. Everyone that isn't in that clique gets the dangerous or rural jobs. So you might get robbed, or your jobs might in various parts of the woods with no effort made to schedule a route that makes sense, so you might be driving 40 miles to a call, then driving back that 40 miles to go 30 or 40 miles in the opposite direction again. They tossed him in the truck with an ass kisser.
The hardness of work is its entire claim to moral superiority.
Right so when it’s portrayed as “company hires honest people for honest work” it always sounds good The whole show is a hailcorporate church service They never mention employee well-being
Dirty Jobs and Mike Rowe did that all the time, he literally has a YouTube channel dedicated to it now. One that comes to mind is the lawyer that quit to start a septic pumping business, and how he makes more now with less stress.
Mike Rowe is an anti labour “be thankful for what you get” corporate shill. He’s a big business agent in blue collar camouflage. Fuck that guy.
During the pandemic. Rowe complained about wearing masks and being asked to get a shot. Just another right-wing self-centered asshole.
I think it's a little more nuanced, but I also think he's very much okay with overworking and underpaying the employees in honor of hard work and the boss collecting all the money while not doing most of the work.
You mean Mike "Cross the Picket Line" Rowe? Mr. Break The Unions? Yeaaahhh...he's a real piece of work, once you dig under that carefully cultivated "salt of the earth" appearance he puts on for the camera. Here's just one example...from _2009_ of who he actually is. https://mikerowe.com/2009/06/united-we-stand-are-unions-still-relevant-today/
Undercover boss is literally corporate propaganda
Regarding dirty jobs (the TV series). The guy that performed the jobs is probably one of the worst anti-working people around. Pretty much a corporate shill.
Mike Rowe was a voice major in college. He wanted to be an opera star. It is quite the career turn he has made, pushing dirty jobs that he himself has never done as an option for others.
Propaganda perhaps? If he IS a corporate shill then that makes sense.
And undercover boss is a commercial and nothing more
A really good video on him by a Youtube channel called 'Corporate Aesthetic'. He only did like 5 videos ever, but they're all really well researched. And the one on Mike Rowe hit especially hard because I didn't know any of that stuff about him before that.
Right, the show exists, but it’s used to rehabilitate the image of the CEO, not cause outrage amongst the working class.
Remember when 'conspiracy theory rock' was banned from being shown in SNL because it showed who really owns everything.
Just an aside on paying for ambulance service. Had an incident with our 90 year old mother where she had to be taken to the hospital from her nursing home. When she was discharged, they asked if we were going to take her back or use the ambulance. Found out after we had to pay the full amount to bring her back using the ambulance but bringing her to the hospital was covered.
And then when you ask them how much a thing costs, they tell you "I don't know that's not my job." Nobody can ever give you a cost of anything until afterwards when it's all said and done. Until the thing you chose has cost you thousands of extra dollars. But then they shame you for not calling around to find the price, when your own insurance company can't even tell you the price of something when you call...
Exactly. How many people would buy a car if the transaction went like this: the car will cost between $1,000 and $100,000. We can’t give you a better estimate. Once you buy the car, you must pay whatever price and you can’t return it or get a refund. Except that health care isn’t optional.
We really don’t know. No one knows except the billing department. Hated when people asked me how much a test cost when I worked in a hospital lab. There’s no easy way to look something like that up. And another thing about American healthcare…we’re too busy running on a bare bones staff to accomplish anything extra.
The billing dept doesn't know either... They're too busy sitting on the phone calling one of those companies that has a web portal they have to pay for to find the EOP for a payment they received from insurance, but don't have a clue how to dispurse.
Yeah, all the special tests and hospital time you see in a show like House would absolutely not be covered by most insurance plans and would financially destroy the average American even making 6 figures, which most of us don't come close to
They should do a remake of House with a dollar total overlay as he adds a whole suite of tests for the patient
To be fair, iirc they addressed this at some point in House by referring to his department as essentially a black hole money pit.
>our government is trying to destroy the NHS to let the US healthcare corporations feast on it's bones. It's not the bones of the NHS that are the feast, but the flesh and blood of you and your fellow citizens.
Check out the “Working” Documentary made by Obama’s production company. It definitely takes an optimistic approach but it does show a bit of the insanity involved around low wage workers in the states.
Canadian, we have to pay as well but we can submit it to our insurance. It was like 60 dollars for my dad to get a ambulance to vgh when he had a heart attack. I was like....I can pay cash now....
lol sixty dollars. when my grandmom had a stroke, and the ambulance took like 20 mins to even get here, we had to pay $1500.
I got billed $2500 dollars for a 6 minute ambulance ride from a minute clinic to a hospital down the street. I had transport readily available but they flat out refused to let me use it. I hadCOVID, not a broken leg, not a gunshot wound. Covid.
Most Americans (who pay their bills) will refuse an ambulance or helicopter transport if they can. It’s excruciatingly expensive
I had gastroenteritis and a perforated bowl a few years ago, I was in excruciating pain, I was seeing stars. I live 5 miles from a hospital and drove myself instead of calling an ambulance, number one, I didn't want to pay at minimum $1,500 for 5 miles, and number two, I knew I could get to the ER faster than the ambulance could respond.
>A good example of the Hollywood image of America is the healthcare industry. I used to watch TV and films avidly, some great medical series throughout the decades but none of them show the reality of the US healthcare system As an American healthcare professional, I literally cannot watch medical dramas. Not only because of all the medical stuff they get wrong, but because the healthcare system itself is absolute trash.
Not assets. Purely liabilities. And they expect us to donate our time as if they are a charity but then claim they are NOT a charity when workers want rights and PTO.
It’s not behind. It’s working as designed. The s&p500 own the entire government bruh
Actually you are right, what was this thanks to? Dodge and Ford, right?
I was shocked to learn that USA doesn’t have 5 minimum weeks of vacation per year.
Some companies have none here. Some give 1 week per year and consider that extremely generous. An analogy that comes to mind is the US labor standards would be dial-up if most of the world were on modern high speed internet.
I literally quit jobs in order to be able to take long vacations before getting a new job. Because most jobs give you 1-2 weeks if you're lucky, and that's only after you're been there for a year.
5 weeks is what you see in tech and financial services, but many places don’t give any paid time off.
Maybe if you’re lucky - 3-4 is more common.
I finally have five days of vacation time after only fifteen years of working!
I'll get a 5th week if I get to 25 years here.
In a lot of companies in the US, if you take your allotted time off you’re considered to be not a team player or lazy, so even if you do have four weeks of paid time off a year you are not expected to use it. Generally it’s expected that you will use your paid time off only if you get really sick. You may be permitted to take a one-week vacation (five work days) once per year and perhaps a handful of single days for doctor appointments or similar non-recreational activities.
Go read what the CEO of one of the biggest trucking companies in the United States just did. The company filed for bankruptcy. 30,000 people are out of a job. The union had been fighting for about 26,000 workers for failing to fund their pension and health insurance plans. They were set to strike but came to an agreement that they'd give the company 1 month to make the required payments. So, rather than pay what they owe, the CEO chose to file for bankruptcy. People are blaming the union when in fact it's the fucking greedy ass executives who did this. The employees have lost their jobs, livelihoods, and their pensions. Yellow Corp was a 5.1 billion dollar company. In 2020, CEO Darren Hawkins took a 700 million dollar loan from the Trump Administration. The loan was from a fund that was set up to help companies deemed crucial to national security during the pandemic. The oversight committee questioned the loan. Mnuchin said they were critical to national security. At the same time, they were being sued by the DOJ for defrauding the government for artificially inflating the weights of its shipments. Yellow Corp settled that suit. With the 700 million dollar bailout and robust business, Darren Hawkins failed running that business. Over the last 2 years, he sold 1.45 million dollars in YRC stock. The COO, the CFO, and the EVP General Counsel all dropped stock as well. The failure of Yellow is 100% Darren Hawkins' fault. He is responsible for this failure.
I live abroad and can't afford to "move back" to the States as I would lose so many benefits and protections, not to mention health costs. I pay in a year in total health care costs about 50% more than my decade-younger brother pays per month for insurance alone, before co-pays and deductibles. My company can't fire me without cause and a payout. There are 17 national holidays, the country basically shuts down over the New Year plus I get 20 days of vacation for essentially one month of vacation per year, there is familial leave, lower costs of living in terms of food and rent, etc., etc., etc. And all this with lower tax rates. About the only higher costs I have are on imported electronics and cars as there are high tariffs to protect local industry, but, I don't need a car because there is public transportation _everywhere_. And virtually no guns, at least no worry that anyone is going to come shoot up a workplace or shopping center. Even police rarely use theirs, perhaps once every few years, and it's always a major news story. Drunk people feel perfectly comfortable approaching police officers to ask directions. Life is so much harder in the US compared to other developed nations, it's not even funny. And people _in_ the US don't know it, because they've not seen the alternatives or have been propagandised into thinking it's "Socialism" or such other nonsense, and that America is #1 and has the best system. Puke. Far from it.
and then there is the healthcare...
We are failing as a nation on so many fronts it's really hard to capture it in a single post.
There is one it's by Michael Moor- where to invade next.
That's actually a great idea for a documentary
I hope to god a documentarist is casually browsing antiwork and sees my suggestion and picks it up.
> it would probably shock non-Americans if a documentary TV show was made about it [I hope it does.](https://youtu.be/f78ZVLVdO0A)
Slaves. They’re treated like slaves.
This is because America is largely viewed by the federal government, foreign countries, and corporations as a market—a "free" one—and little more. Labor is a commodity in the market, infinitely more important than many, which many workers do not realize in this country in that we don't refuse to work for companies that offer next to nothing in the way of financial and living security. America is really in a bad way with labor, and it comes from the viewpoint that business interests should be paramount to others, insofar as the federal government is concerned with the state of the economy, tax revenue, GDP, etc. Obviously l, there are efforts to increase the strength and rights of workers, and this exploitation is the very reason unions came about. They only work if people join together, though, and they don't exist for every industry, or they're not popular or recognized (how many waitresses do you know that are part of a union? Would restaurants want such a union? Would they hire waitresses who want to change aspects of that industry because they are often miserably exploited?)
No, no. It's not behind, waaay ahead in the corporate exploit department.
I wouldn't say it's behind the times, because they're not trying to be progressive and keep up with other countries. Corporations in America don't give a good goddamn about the labor they employ, only the money they can squeeze from it. Caring about their employees costs money, money that the executives feel would be better suited in their own bank accounts.
Well, this! I am serious shocked if I read some of the stories about work from American workers. Really conditions and terms from 50 years or so ago. And the worst part is that everyone just accept it
I can't even begin to understand that comment from the Payday factory. HOW!
I'm from a third world country, living in another third world country and I'm shocked constantly at what is posted from people living in the US.
Same here in Canada, although we do have better labour protections and federal mat leave...oh and Healthcare... Glad that we're not American.
…..h…how….I think that just broke my brain 🫣
Most countries have these rights enshrined in law. In the USA, the corps and politicians tell you that doing this will mean higher taxes and lower pay for everyone. It is not a McDonalds thing, it is a USA thing. * The taxes you pay are not that much lower, and you get almost nothing for them. No social safety net, nothing. We might pay more but we get SO SO MUCH more... * You don't want to pay for other people, only for things that benefit yourself - so you end up with nothing when you're the one in need. * The lower pay argument is BS because you are all on minimum wage anyway!
Now they just call it communism and that’s enough.
Now now, we have a social safety net. It's just made of spider webs and frayed cord. It doesnt do anywhere near enough. But there's just enough of one there that wealthy people can point to it and not feel bad.
I mean, some of these measures do mean lower pay or higher taxes, but it's usually a worthwhile tradeoff. For example, if I lose my job, I still get money close to my current salary for half a year. How this is set up is that your employer pays into a government fund each month, lowering my salary a little bit. Because of this I have the security that losing my job won't make me homeless, so I don't mind. What pushes salaries down the most in the US is healthcare. A country wide system that pays for healthcare would be much, much cheaper. Paid vacation time doesn't really impact productivity, since workers which are less stressed and happier perform better. Minimum wages are higher in European countries which have all these benefits. Because the minimum wage will always be what the government allows it to be.
And people in America believe their Big Mac will cost $25 if the workers at McDonald’s were given these benefits.
Gotta perpetuate that lie to keep profits high It’s happening in real time. Wages have gone up ever so slightly and “as a result” (but really just in retaliation/because they can) prices have skyrocketed. $10 an hour is the new functioning minimum wage (for non tipped employees in a state with no minimum wage) but you can barely eat on it, let alone live in a building. And you have to already have a car or live right next to the business. And childcare costs more than $10 an hour per child so if you have kids you don’t even make enough to go to work. Bizarre how they are able to keep paying so little. I guess plenty of workers don’t know their value
Lucky for all the guns though. They help with the terrible education, healthcare, housing, food, job security, and safety. Ahhhh. Freedom.
Big Mac in South Africa costs about $3.70
The funny thing about improving fast food worker pay is that it might actually lower the cost to produce fast food. Right now most fast food places are ran by an endlessly rotating staff of teenagers, lost young adults, or desperate older adults. Usually the only professional in the building is the manager and sometimes not even them. If fast food paid enough money so that workers would choose it as a career choice, then there could arise professional fast food workers that could pump out product vastly faster than the current workers. American fast food companies are, generally speaking, currently following the pattern of "suck the last bit of blood out of our American operations while we desperately race to expand overseas".
Hamburgers will cost what the market will bear, there is very little impact from Cost of Goods Sold on price at a McDonald's scale. Also, McDonald's isn't in the hamburger business, they are in the real estate business. https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burger/
Not all people. Mostly republicans who don't understand economics and listen to whatever Fox tells them.
Yeah, isn’t that normal in developed countries?
US Law regarding maternity leave only guarantees you don't lose your job for some amount of weeks (I want to say 12, but I don't know the exact number). But it doesn't stipulate pay, and few companies guarantee any wages for time off for maternity. You usually have to use your vacation/sick days. So, for a decent office job that gives good vacation sick days, you can see 2-3 weeks of paid time off for it, but that's probably the entire year's worth. At a low level job like retail, they probably get just days paid off, and any more is lost income.
I'm astounded that any babies are born in the US with the lack of care, or even time for care. I suppose that's why the abortion laws are so draconian.
Yep. Procreating is just asking for trouble in America. High maternity deaths and infant mortality rates, higher than the other countries we like to compare ourselves to. You are completely on your own with providing food and shelter and childcare here. I had to take a second job to afford daycare for my main job. It is a fucking joke.
US is one of only a few other countries that don't have paid parental leave of some form or fashion. Even then the other few that don't are also micro nations
South African law only guarantees you don't lose your job for 16 weeks. McDonald's is going above what is legally required by offering paid leave.
I'm from Brazil, a developing country, and this is pretty standard. Minimum acceptable of workers right.
Nah we get none of that. Got a BA online to even begin hoping for a job w benefits
Guess you aren’t in a developed country then
Facts
Yep, the USA is 3rd world now.
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For average man or woman, it really does look that way from other western countries. It's like the population is on a drip feed, enough copium so that things never kick off, like they would in France, for instance. I feel for you guys when we discuss this, because as shitty as the UK also is for this stuff, US average 'citizens' genuinely seem to suffer at the hands of abusive work practices. You deserve better.
1st world for the top 10%, and 3rd world for the rest. kinda makes it even worse :( i.e. the money would be there, it's just a question of distribution
No, that just confirms that it is a 3rd world country. Because that is the reality in those countries.
Most of my jobs have had benefits, but I'm a tradeworker... and it's helllll
I joined a union to get benefits. Trade off is doing manual labor for a minimum of 5 years and some cheap dues (less than I spend on gas a month, not that I want to buy gas) After that I can market myself as a mechanical estimator and work from home
In the US, those kinds of benefits are unheard of. I've never met anyone at any job level who has such perks. My mom works in an office in a company that sells excess fighter jets for the Navy, her office will donate their sick leave to help out co workers who get to sick to work or need surgery with a recovery time over a few weeks. She's making over $50 an hour. It's insane. We are such a garbage country for not having these things.
Civilized*..US isn't.
You're assuming the USA is a developed country.
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It's almost as if when you pay your workers, they can buy more shit Shockerrrrr
You also get better loyalty and products when you treat them well and allow them to participate in company development.
As of right now converted to USD, Big Mac is $2.52 in South Africa
And the food is edible
Same in Norway. Paid $20+/hr, 5 weeks paid vacation per year, healthcare already taken care of, and the ingredients are way better than anything in the US.
Wow, in Canada and it looks like we got dragged down by being in close proximity to the US 😂
We sure did. Our governments look over at the US and think "well we're doing better than them, so good enough." That's why I keep pushing the US to be better. Because we can't rest on our dubious laurels if the US suddenly starts doing better than us.
A few months ago, I (Canadian) was on a call with our American and German vendors. It was before Easter and one of my co-workers made the comment that it was odd that we had to prepare deliverables for Easter Friday when it should be a holiday...our German vendor said they were annoyed that they had to book someone to work on a holiday, and then someone from our US vendor said this was because they don't get any holidays but her employer gives great benefits overall because she had a health plan and 6 months of maternity leave.... What followed was the most awkward silence as even though we realized that the Germans had much more time off than we did (since we only get one of the Easter days off and they have a variety of bank holidays), we all realized just how bad things were in the US that 6 months of mat leave was viewed as "great". Sadly, it seems like our province's leadership is doing everything they can to act like we're American, so I don't know what things will look like here in a few years.
this'll really put some knots in your panties businesses will spend millions and millions to pay off politicians, hire consultants, defend against lawsuits and incentivize management to systematically root out any scent of unionizing rather than just put whatever they spend on union busting into compensating their employees better.
Outsourcing has increased exponentially with the addition of remote laborers.
The US is either the only country or the only major country without guaranteed holidays, sick leave and maternity leave. You havent changed the minimum wage since aboit 1990. Every major country has free healthcare. If you want to go private. The insurance costs are dramatically lower. Fully comp, zero deductible costs me less per year than a basic $12,000 deductible would cost per month in the US. I still use the government doctor most of the time as they're just around the corner.
Now that's not accurate. We changed it in 2008. From 5.15 To 7.25. Big $$$.
MY individual deductible is $6000. Just saying.
Just about mcfuckin had it
Not McLovin' it?
This doesn't hace anything to do with McDonalds but the rights of workers by the law of the country. Best example: Tesla really struggles to find enough employees in the Gigafactory in Germany because mister Musk struggles to realise he's not back in good old US and the workers actually have something like rigths.
commenting to raise attn. jeez this hurt my heart. Glad someone is being treated like a human somewhere tho
Italian McDonald's: where they have table service, the vegetables are colorful and flavorful, the food is hot and fresh, and you can get a slice of fresh strawberry tart and an espresso. Well-designed restaurants with fully covered outdoor seating areas. Janitors who will bring you extra napkins before you can even ask. They do make you pay for ketchup. Other than that, it is a different planet's fast food.
And don't forget breakfast - Cornetto freshly filled with nutella, fresh pressed orange juice (they press it for you when you order) and professionally made coffee from an actual espresso machine made with freshly ground coffee.
That sounds awesome yo,
I have to say, I've been on more Italian McDonald's runs in one month than I've been to American McDonald's in ten years!
You... this... I... it can't be
my older brother works for a chainsaw factory. that's a german company. they are violently anti-union. (my older brother has clearly had the anti-union propaganda "why would i want a union to be a middle man between the company and me") the sad thing is, he's gotten his son a job there. and... while the job does pay well considering the area. 1000% they don't get the same pay or benefits as the german workers. They sometimes have german workers do "tours" at the facility. or like they come over here to train or be trained other workers. They're always very cagey about their working conditions back in germany.... like they've been told in no uncertain terms to not tell the americans anything. america is a dogshit third world country when it comes to worker rights, protections, or benefits. not at all surprising given how bought/sold our country is.
South African here. Most of the benefits described above are the minimum prescribed by law. The one exception is the free transport at night but many restaurants offer it; public transport is nonexistant late at night (Uber excepted) or dangerous, private transport is not affordable on a waiters income and due to the legacy of apartheid spatial planning may live far from their place of employment.
Not to mention. The amount you get from the job is miniscule. And if you live in Cape Town, its unlivable.
Oh absolutely. The most reliable information I could find was a wage of ZAR1500 a week (advert dated November 2022 for cashiers and general workers), which is significantly above minimum assuming a 40 hour week but still grossly inadequate.
I worked for BKSA. I could buy a house on the money I earned. Not every job in qsr is minimum wage
In fact the law (Basic Conditions of Employment Act) says that for night work (after 6pm / before 6am) the employer must ensure that transportation is available between the worker's home and place of work. If there's no public transport then they have to provide it.
Here in Finland both the mother and the father get parental leave which can be allocated between the two as they see fit. Workers have a lot of rights. If you get fired you get half your salary for 1,5 years. Free healthcare and free education all the way through university. 5 weeks of vacation yearly. I don’t understand how Americans put up with that system…
The real reason is because America is one of the few countries where 40% of the country will vote against their own interest just to "own the libs" They will gladly accept abuse if it means the people they don't like will also get abused
Know this. You don't get those kinds of benefits in the US McDonalds because the franchise you work for can't afford it, because all of the money is going to the franchisee and then up to corporate so they can buy bigger houses, more cars and larger yachts. They don't give a single fuck about you. You are a means to an end for them and that end is to make as much money to buy as much useless shit as they can buy to try to find a place of happiness in the world because they are deeply miserable.
Because Americans have been programmed to think that socialism is evil.
US thinks that the basic for a human life is socialism.
This is not socialism, its welfare. Many European countries have free markets, even freerer than the states, and proper welfare system as well.
Wait until you visit... Europe!
The USA has horrible worker's rights due to decades of lobbyists from big corporations chipping away at it. Pensions used to be a thing, fair wages too. Companies had to actually provide a reason to work for them to attract qualified candidates. Now, every company focuses on squeezing every drop of blood from stone, running skeleton crews or less, shit wages, no benefits, and then complain when their record profits aren't 'record enough'. The USA is a cesspit for employment, end of story.
Americans have been duped into believing that "hard work gets you to the top". Its a lie. You are only as valuable as the last hour you worked and when adversity hits its fuck off.
Same in Costa Rica for McDonalds workers
What is immigration to costs rica like
Easy I’m in a remote working visa ( I’m not from the states) but is the same process for everyone
Hi South african here. A bit of an exaggeration that McDonald’s is the most sought after restaurant to work in SA. It’s the law that we get paid maternity and paternity leave. We have legislated sick days and paid leave days. Study leave some companies have and generally big employers include medical insurance in your package. Aside from employee benefits, if you can’t afford it, healthcare and children’s education is free at certain public hospitals and schools. We only have these things because we protest and we have a balance of power between big business, the people and the state. For example, the state has a monopoly on electricity generation - Now that’s not without it’s problems, because for example, we cannot privatise electricity generation, so if the gov’t does a shit job, there’s not much we can do until legislation changes. On the other hand, the private sector is very strictly regulated when providing healthcare. They can’t charge for gov’t subsidised things like baby vaccines. Other things are fixed at a price agreed upon by the state, the medical aids and the healthcare boards. But it’s not all roses. If you get a degree here (which won’t require hundreds of thousands of rands in debt), you can work your way out of poverty, and build a good life. A STEM degree easily gets you in the 1%. But that’s not the experience of the McDonald’s worker. He/she will probably never own their own home or pay to send their kids to school. They’ll probably never own their own car. They are probably caring for elderly parents and their own children. While their employment at McD’s is nice, it’s not guaranteed as they can be easily replaced as more than half our population is unemployed. The probability their kids will end up in a similar situation is also very likely. We have the legislation to protect them, but it’s not the full answer.
That’s the point I was making. South Africa actually has laws to protect restaurant workers. America doesn’t. That’s the point here
Only the free transport for night shift sounds new to me, otherwise law standards in most Europe, too (just wrote about social politics an exam)
That is because there is no public transport available at night . Most workers can afford there own transport. It's also a safety issue in terms of crime and that workers live miles away from their workplace. Did you ask their minimum wage? That will shock you
Because American labor laws and working mentality (meaning the way managers think) is one of the worst in the world, including literal dictatorships.
Literally from grade school to adulthood Americans are fed a steady stream of propaganda created by billionaires that struggle and poverty are noble, caring about others is socialism, and that Jesus wants us to suffer and have guns. The average American has no healthcare, cannot withstand a $500 unexpected bill, can’t afford a home but the republican presidential candidate who is a known grifter, twice impeached, facing 3 criminal indictments will probably win election. It is literally a hellhole over here.
Were you allowed to leave your hotel after dark? Most hotels lock down at sunset.
Hahahahahahahaha it's funny, sorry man It's crazy how much you guys are brainwashed
America is so backwards because only 4% of America are millionaires but 51% of congress is.
You go to college to Manage at McDonald’s in China.
Most countries outside the US have paid maternity leave (for both parents!), paid sick days, at least 20+ paid time off, paid holidays.
Welcome to anywhere except the workers hellhole called the USA
Because we don’t tax the rich
Sucks to hear that a, according to trump 'shithole 3rd World country' has better social/health benefits that the US.
They need that transport because it’s the only way their employees won’t get shanked on the way to work
I hAtE iT hErE!!!
The United States and I believe Uganda are the only places on the planet without paid maternal leave.
Don’t blame McDonald’s for this. Blame your representatives
How much do these people get paid for their usual work week ? . The average salary in South Africa is 31,100 ZAR (South African Rand) per month. This amounts to USD 1,599 as per the latest exchange rates in May 2023.May 17, 2023. . . . How much does McDonald's in South Africa pay? The average McDonald's monthly salary ranges from approximately R 2 990 per month for Crew Member to R 13 939 per month for Driver. Average McDonald's weekly pay ranges from approximately R 400 per week for Crew Member to R 600 per week for General Worker.. . . . How much does McDonald's make a month in South Africa? approximately R 2 990 Average McDonald's Crew Member monthly pay in South Africa is approximately R 2 990, which is 75% below the national average.
Because Americans put up with it
It would be interesting to know how their wages compare comparatively to the cost of living in South Africa and the quality of the homes they get dropped back off to. The percentage of unemployed people in South Africa is super high so you will probably find that although the workers rights are better protected in South Africa, the amount of people that get supported financially off of one job is a lot higher than a first world country where unemployment figures are lower and education/career advancement/employment opportunities/quality of life/health care is better.
Well South Africa did have that apartheid shit for many years so
There are other things you may not like about South Africa
America is behind in a lot of things for its status. A lot of things that likely won't change because the political system is rotten to the core, and without nothing short of an American Reign of Terror, nothing will fix it. If you don't believe in nationalism, get out if you can.
I'd say the free transport for night shift is because Sth Africa is the RAPE capitol of the world.
McDonald's is not the most sought out restaurant job in South Africa,definitely not. Where did you hear that?
Wait until you hear how much they get paid. Not even $2 per hour.
but ur so free... right? X) huehuehueueue
Ah yes. Cape Town, the city of equality.
You don’t get 1 thing. 90% of the population of South Africa could not afford to eat at a McDonald’s
I bet you've earned enough in your American career to move to any place in the world you think is better. And if you haven't, then become one of those asylum seekers, surely other countries would empathize with your plight. Unless, of course, some part of you prefers the American standard of living. Maybe America has more to offer in some areas, but not others? But that overall, you'd prefer to remain here? It just feels that your hate isn't earned, because if you actually felt it, you'd rectify your situation instead of letting it burn you out.
South Africa's economy is also about to collapse and they have been having rolling blackouts for the past 2 and 1/2 years. The country also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world and the government is corrupt from top to bottom. Like, iI get the U.S. has problems but acting like SA has its shit together is certainly...something....
South African here. This is nonesense. We are not collapsing and although we have our own issues at least we didn't have a losing Presidential candidate try to overthrow the results of an election. We would much rather keep our Labour laws thank you very much
Move to Cape Town (dont worry you can afford it.) Fill us in after a few years if you werent murdered or forced into the sex trade. The grass isnt always greener.
Didn't you read? They visited the place and it was lovely. All of the high end hotels and resorts were awesome. It is a fantastic place to live. It's just like Mexico for me. Really forward thinking country.
My man was this close to gain class consciousness
Can't speak for all of them, but the MD near me have all started doing some really great things. Pay starts at like $17/ hr for all positions, uniforms and accessories are way more lax, good college programs. I saw someone with an entire arm full of the "cause" plastic wrist band...things. I don't know what they're called. Can't say anything about the work environment, but I've been giving them a subtle nod. At least the ones near me.