McDonald’s to Help Young People, but Not Its Own Workers

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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McDonald’s to Help Young People, but Not Its Own Workers

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McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) wants to help 2 million people improve their job prospects through a program called “Youth Opportunity.” Apparently, the plan is not available to its own workers, and certainly not its own middle age or older workers, some of whom make barely more than the minimum wage.

McDonald’s described the program:

McDonald’s Corporation announced a new initiative called Youth Opportunity, with a global goal to reduce barriers to employment for two million young people by 2025 through pre-employment job readiness training, employment opportunities and workplace development programs. As part of this goal, McDonald’s is also joining the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), to help accelerate global efforts to tackle the youth employment challenge.

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The ILO says there are 64 million young people unemployed worldwide, a number that seems extremely small based on the global population. To combat this, David Fairhurst, McDonald’s Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, said: “Around the world, too many young people are finding that, through no fault of their own, there are barriers to entry into the workplace. We believe this needs to change.”

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McDonald’s says it pays the minimum wage. However, many of its workers have protested to raise that to $15. The age issues have been a strong barrier between workers and the fast-food company for years.

Young people who take advantage of the new McDonald’s program may see their situations improve. As for most McDonald’s workers, it’s no deal at all.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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