After
101 McDonald's workers and 37 supporters were arrested protesting the company's low wages and poor treatment of its workers, CEO Don Thompson went to Bloomberg to provide a
super-convincing defense of his company's pay practices:
We've had people that have been outside, and you know what, we respect the fact that they want to challenge us relative to wages. We continue to believe we pay fair and competitive wages, and we provide opportunity and we provide job opportunities and training for those entering the workforce. We're trying to be a really great employer.
I guess how Don Thompson tries to be a really great employer is to pay his workers so little that they get an estimated
$1.2 billion in public assistance. And by providing workers with budget advice suggesting they
get a second job and don't spend anything on heat. And by offering an employee "McResources" helpline that told a worker with 10 years of experience at McDonald's to
apply for food stamps. Plus, for all Thompson's talk of opportunity, there are
few opportunities for advancement in the fast food industry, which has a low percentage of managerial jobs and pays its first-line supervisors a median of just $13.06.
The only way this is competitive is if the competition is to keep workers poor.