Working in the Service Society, edited by Lynn Macdonald and Carmen Sirianni, suggests how the labor policies of the fast food industry are now being adopted throughout the American economy. Alan B. Krueger, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, outlined for me some of his research on the fast food industry and the minimum wage. I also found the book that he wrote with David Card, Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), to be useful. A recent study by the USDA Economic Research Service cogently refutes the argument that higher wages will harm the fast food industry. The study, written by Chinkook Lee and Brian O’Roark, is titled “The Impact of Minimum Wage Increases on Food and Kindred Products Prices: An Analysis of Price Pass-Through” (Washington, D.C.: Food and Rural Economics Division, USDA Economic Research Service, Technical Bulletin No. 1877, July 1999). A report by the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor — Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998) — outlines the social consequences of a teenage workforce. Many of its conclusions were foreshadowed by a National Safe Workplace Institute report, Sacrificing America’s Youth: The Problem of Child Labor and the Response of Government (Chicago: National Safe Workplace Institute, 1992). Two other reports were usefuclass="underline" Janice Windau, Eric Sygnatur, and Guy Toscano, “Profile of Work Injuries Incurred by Young Workers,” Monthly Labor Review, June 1, 1999; and Report on the Youth Labor Force (Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Labor, June 2000). For the section on fast food crime, I interviewed law enforcement officers in Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, and Omaha — as well as Joseph A. Kinney, president of the National Safe Workplace Institute, and Jerald Greenberg, an expert on workplace theft and a professor of ethics and business management at the University of Ohio.
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61 About a third of the city’s inhabitants: Cited in “Colorado Springs Facts,” Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.
the population of the Colorado Springs metropolitan area: See “Colorado Springs Fact Sheet,” Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation, June 1998; and “Metropolitan Area Population Estimates for July 1, 1998, and Population Change for April 1990 to July 1998,” U.S. Census Bureau, September 30, 1999.
61 Denver’s population is about four times larger: See “Metropolitan Area Population Estimates,” and Terry Cotten, “Springs Council Adopts Budget,” Denver Post, November 29, 1999.
about one-fifth of the city’s housing sat vacant: Cited in Markusen et al., Rise of the Gunbelt, p. 178.
a direct capital investment of $30 million: Ibid., p. 178.
62 nearly half the jobs in Colorado Springs: Interview with Rocky Scott, president of the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation.
“In Your Face from Outer Space”: The unit is the U.S. Air Force Space Warfare Center.
the rate of union membership: Cited in “Colorado Springs: The Pikes Peak Region,” Greater Colorado Springs Development Agency, 1997.
Hoiles was politically conservative: See James S. Granelli, “The Fight for Freedom Newspapers,” Los Angeles Times, November 17, 1985.
advocates spanking disobedient children: See Dobson, The New Dare to Discipline, pp. 1–7, 50, 64.
generates much larger annual revenues: See Alexander-Moegerle, Dobson’s War on America, p. 13.
64 more staunchly Republican than the American South: See Valerie Richardson, “Population Flow Upends West’s Politics,” Washington Times, February 28, 1999.
approximately one million people: Cited in William H. Frey, “Immigrant and Native Migrant Magnets,” American Demographics, November 1996. See also William G. Deming, “A decade of economic change and population shifts in U.S. regions,” Monthly Labor Review, November 1996.
“the new white flight”: William H. Frey, “The New White Flight,” American Demographics, April 1994.
about 100,000 people: Cited in Donald Blount, “Colorado’s Pace of Growth Likely to Taper Off in 1999,” Denver Post, February 7, 1999.
ranked forty-ninth in the nation: The ranking, by Education Week magazine in 1998, took into account the state’s per capita spending on schools, cost of living, and personal income. Cited in Janet Bingham, “Schools Get Lower Marks,” Denver Post, January 8, 1999.
three times the number of cars: Cited in Terri Cotten, “Colorado Springs: City Grapples with Gridlock,” Denver Post, May 23, 1999.
annual surplus of about $700 million: Cited in Burt Hubbard, “Tax Cut Feeding Frenzy,” Rocky Mountain News, April 18, 1999.
one-third of the surface area: See White, It’s Your Misfortune, p. 550.
65 the largest private employer in the state today: Cited in “1998 Menu of Facts,” Colorado Restaurant Association.
restaurant industry has grown much faster than the population: To determine the rate of growth, I counted the number of restaurants listed in the Colorado Springs Yellow Pages in 1967 and 1997.
66 more than 70 percent of fast food visits: Cited in J. P. Donlon, “Quinlan Fries Harder: Interview with McDonald’s CEO Michael Quinlan,” Chief Executive, January 11, 1998. See also Judith Waldrop, “Most Restaurant Meals Are Bought on Impulse,” American Demographics, February 1994.
66 Ray Kroc flew in a Cessna… McDonald’s later used helicopters: See Kroc, Grinding It Out, p. 176.
one of the world’s leading purchasers of commercial satellite: Interview with Elliott Olson.
“spy on their customers”: William Dunn, “Skycams Drain Floods, Save Lives, Sell Burgers,” American Demographics, July 1992.
68 two-thirds of the nation’s fast food workers: Cited in Robert W. Van Giezen, “Occupational Wages in the Fast Food Industry,” Monthly Labor Review, August 1994; and Alan Liddle, “Diversity at Work: Teenagers,” Nation’s Restaurant News, May 24, 1999.
Business historian Alfred D. Chandler has argued: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 241–42.
69 The guacamole isn’t made by workers: See Joel Millman, “These Days, Mexico Serves as a Giant Offshore Kitchen,” Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2000.
70 “Smile with a greeting”: Quoted in Reiter, Making Fast Food, p. 85.
“When management determines exactly”: Leidner, Fast Food, Fast Talk, p. 3.