Over the weekend, a billionaire actual property mogul labored a frying machine and served drive-thru clients. No, it wasn't an episode of Undercover Boss; It was a photograph session organized by the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
Regardless of the Trump marketing campaign's insistence that the occasion was iconic, social media customers questioned whether or not the occasion was as scripted a manufacturing as an episode of The Apprentice. Reality or fiction, the reality is that Trump couldn't be extra atypical of right now's quick meals workforce, nearly all of which is feminine, about half of that are made up of individuals of coloration (together with many immigrants) and folks with low wages. bass that handle to feed themselves. their households.
However don't trouble with us: The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Nationwide Employment Regulation Undertaking (NELP) routinely publish knowledge on quick meals employees in the USA.
—Regardless of myths, most quick meals jobs are now not stuffed by youngsters who work part-time. Though there was some fact to that from the 1970s and 1990s, a 2020 report from NELP reveals that greater than 70% of quick meals employees are 20 years outdated or older and that the proportion of employees between 25 and 54 years outdated is rising continually. In 2021, lower than a 3rd of quick meals employees have been between 16 and 19 years outdated.
—Girls make up nearly all of quick meals employees, round 58% in accordance with the BLS. Apparently, some analysis reveals that inside quick meals institutions, some roles fall alongside gender traces, with ladies concentrated within the entrance of the home, comparable to cashiers and counter employees, whereas males are extra generally employed in kitchen stalls or behind the home. .
—Hispanic and Latino employees are overrepresented in quick meals jobs based mostly on their share of the U.S. inhabitants: about 30% of quick meals employees in comparison with 19% of the overall inhabitants. Black employees make up about 13 p.c of the quick meals workforce, near their share of the U.S. inhabitants. Based on the BLS, about half of quick meals employees are white, predominantly in rural areas.
—Based on the Migration Coverage Institute, immigrants signify roughly 20 to 25% of the quick meals workforce, though this determine could also be larger in dense metropolitan areas.
—Based on the BLS, the median hourly wage for quick meals employees in 2023 was round $12.90 an hour. Greater than 50% of quick meals employees use public help applications (e.g., SNAP, Medicaid) to assist themselves and their households.
—To interrupt down one other stereotype about teenage quick meals employees, a examine by the College of California at Berkeley discovered that 68% of quick meals employees have been the first earners for his or her households.