TheMadLionsFan
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Low wages, short hours drive many fast-food workers into homelessness
Fast-food workers make up 11% of all homeless workers in California and 9% in Los Angeles County, according to a report released Tuesday by Economic Roundtable.
When Jose de la Torre began delivering pizzas for Papa Johns in 2019, he made $15 an hour and shared a one-bedroom apartment in the Florence-Graham neighborhood with half a dozen other people.
After two years on the job, his hourly rate was the same but his work schedule had been cut — to about 30 hours a week instead of the full 40, he said. Meanwhile, his everyday living expenses had gone up. He began sleeping in his Nissan Altima, parking it near the Papa Johns in Lynwood where he worked.
“I made the choice,” De la Torre, 53, said. “It was either my car and eat, or rent.”
De la Torre’s situation is not uncommon among current and recent fast-food workers, who make up 11% of all homeless workers in California and 9% in Los Angeles County, according to a report released Tuesday by Economic Roundtable. The nonprofit research organization estimated that there are 10,120 fast-food workers in California who are homeless.
Of the total homeless population, the group estimated that people who have worked fast-food jobs in the past 12 months make up 5.9% in California and 5.2% in L.A. County. It said the median annual earnings of frontline fast-food workers — such as cooks, cashiers, food prep workers and dishwashers — was $14,949 statewide in 2020.
“The fast-food industry is a poverty employer, with a larger share of its workers in poverty than any other industry,” said the report, which was underwritten by the Service Employees International Union. “Raising the wage floor in this industry is the single most important step for reducing economic homelessness in the state.”
