Image source,hotlunchpam/ Reddit
A notice outside the McDonald’s Bidou Road branch in Medford, Oregon, USA.
Due to labor shortages in fast food restaurants, a McDonald’s branch in Oregon, USA, appealed to 14 and 15-year-olds to apply.
The Biddle Road branch in Medford put up a banner in front of the store two weeks ago, urging younger people to apply.
According to reports, since this notice was released, the number of job seekers has soared. This recruitment practice is in compliance with the law.
Despite the gradual relaxation of the epidemic restrictions, fast food and other industry branches across the United States are still struggling to fill job vacancies.
Heather Kennedy, the manager of the Medford branch, told Business Insider that in her family’s 40-year history of running a McDonald’s branch, this labor shortage was “unheard of”.
In the beginning, she raised the minimum hourly salary of the branch to 15 US dollars (10.50 pounds) to attract employees, but it did not arouse enough interest.
However, Ms. Kennedy said that since she lowered the entry threshold to below the age of 16, she has received more than 25 job applications.
McDonald’s declined to comment on this approach, but told the BBC that the company and all McDonald’s branches have adopted best practices in recruitment.
The company also said that its branches have taken a series of measures to deal with labor shortages, including increased salaries, signing bonuses, and new benefits such as back-up childcare services.
McDonald’s also recently announced that it will increase the hourly salary to an average of US$15 in branches directly owned by the company across the country.
McDonald’s is not the first fast food chain to hire younger employees to fill vacancies.
Burger King and Wendy’s branches have recently released similar notices. According to reports, due to the lack of more experienced newcomers, the Texas fast-food chain “Layne’s Chicken Fingers” has promoted employees in their teens to twenties to management positions.
The labor laws of each state in the United States are different. In Oregon, people aged 14 or over can engage in non-hazardous jobs such as fast-food restaurant services, provided that their working hours do not affect schooling and they can get appropriate rest periods.
However, this type of operation does not seem to be common. According to research by career website Zippia, the average age of employees of McDonald’s in the United States is 27 years old.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is currently a severe labor shortage in the United States, schools are still closed, and there are not enough home-based child caregivers.
Some economists blamed this on the federal government’s generous benefits during the global pandemic—an extra $300 a week—but this measure has expired in many states.
Job vacancies with lower skills and lower salaries have become particularly difficult to fill, leading companies like Walmart and Amazon to offer retention bonuses and higher starting salaries.