Jo Ann Wise worked for Hardees for 21 years. Starting at $4.25 an hour in 1984, her ending salary was $8.00 in 2005. After accounting for inflation, that was a 2 cent raise over 21 years.
Ms. Wise writes about the Trump/Puzder world in the Washington Post today:
Andrew Puzder, the chief executive since 2000 of CKE — which owns Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., and other fast-food companies — is now in line to become the country’s next labor secretary. The headlines ponder what this may mean for working people in America, but I already know.
I already know what Trump/Puzder economics look like because I’m living it every day. Despite giving everything I had to Puzder’s company for 21 years, I left without a penny of savings, with no health care and no pension. Now, while I live in poverty, Trump, who promised to fix the rigged economy, has chosen for labor secretary someone who wants to rig it up even more. He’s chosen the chief executive of a company who recently made more than $10 million in a year, while I’m scraping by on Supplemental Security payments.
When I began at Hardee’s, I was hopeful. I liked the work and received a promotion to shift manager after only a month. But the pay remained low, and even with my husband’s salary as the head cook at Fort Jackson, we relied on food stamps and Medicaid. We were two full-time-employed adults; we shouldn’t have had to turn to the government, but we had kids to raise, and so we were left with no other choice.
Low pay wasn’t the only reason my family struggled: It was the lack of benefits and respect, too.
WaPo: Andrew Puzder will be a disaster for workers. I know: He was for me.
Ms. Wise was forced to stop working in 2005 when she was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:
After more than two decades at Hardee’s, I left without any savings, a 401(k), pension or health benefits. That’s Puzder’s America.
The cooks and cashiers at Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. are the reason Puzder can take home more than $10 million in a single year and live in a plush mansion with movie star neighbors — while his workers like me skip meals to pay our rent and are forced to live in homeless shelters.
That’s Trump’s America.
Bernie said it on Sunday:
“You know, it is hard not to laugh to see President Trump alongside these Wall Street guys,” Sanders told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I have to say this, Jake. And I don’t mean to be disrespectful. This guy is a fraud.”
Bernie on Trump: "This Guy is a Fraud."
But Ms. Wise has hope:
About four years ago, my son Terrence — who lives in Kansas City, Mo., and works for McDonald’s, became involved in the Fight for $15, the movement to raise minimum pay to $15 an hour and strengthen working Americans’ right to join a union.
snip
But Terrence and his colleagues in the Fight for $15 movement have filled me with a sense of hope I never would have thought possible when I left Hardee’s in 2005.
WaPo: Andrew Puzder will be a disaster for workers. I know: He was for me.
There is hope. We can fight these evil people.