This summer, thousands of fast food workers around the nation walked off the job, demanding to be paid $15 per hour for work that traditionally pays about half that. As Wendy’s striker Kaye Smith told NY1 recently, “I have to live with my mom … because I wouldn’t be able to support myself on $7.25, you know?”
We can debate whether her living arrangements are Wendy’s responsibility any more than they are that of New York’s landlords or grocers. Either way, Smith’s is a novel concept of unskilled jobs in America. Fast food wages have never been expected to support households on their own — nor is it reasonable to think that every job in the economy should. According to the Census Bureau, the average family income of a minimum wage-earner is over $53,000, so this appears to be something minimum wage workers already understand.
