A really good piece over at the New York Times compares the life of an average fast-food worker in the United States, with that of an average fast-food worker in Denmark.
As a shift manager at a Burger King near Tampa, Fla., Anthony Moore earns $9 an hour, typically working 35 hours a week and taking home around $300 weekly.
“It’s very inadequate,” said Mr. Moore, 26, who supervises 10 workers. His rent is $600 a month, and he often falls behind on his lighting and water bills. A single father, he receives $164 a month in food stamps for his daughters, 5 and 2.
Meanwhile, in Copenhagen:
On a recent afternoon, Hampus Elofsson ended his 40-hour workweek at a Burger King and prepared for a movie and beer with friends. He had paid his rent and all his bills, stashed away some savings, yet still had money for nights out.
That is because he earns the equivalent of $20 an hour — the base wage for fast-food workers throughout Denmark and two and a half times what many fast-food workers earn in the United States.
On top of that base pay of $20 an hour, fast-food workers in Denmark receive universal health care, 5 weeks paid vacation, maternity and paternity leave, and a pension plan. These types of benefits are fantasy for American workers. The article notes that the standard of living in Denmark is 30% higher than in the U.S., and that fast-food chains in the country are not as profitable. Denmark has no minimum wage law, and wages are negotiated between unions and employers.
What the article doesn't say is that trade unions in Europe are generally more powerful than those in the U.S. That's because they are typically backed by Socialist/Labor parties with more effective political representation in their respective governments. This kind of political power, coupled with more homogenous populations, enabled the kind of generous public welfare programs we see in Europe. The Democratic Party in the U.S. cannot always act as a true Labor Party because our "winner-take-all" political system compels the party to be a "big tent" and to rely on the same corporate donors as Republicans in order to be competitive. Because the American political system lacks proportional representation, true Socialist/Labor third parties cannot emerge with the power to push the Democratic Party, our politics and our society, further to the left. Until the U.S. removes the influence of money in our elections, and moves away from a "winner-take-all," dual-party, political regime, progressive change is going to continue to be an uphill climb.