McJob

McJob is a pejoration for jobs in the low-wage sector , which found its way into various English-language dictionaries and the dictionary of the New Economy from Duden-Verlag .

origin

The term was first used in 1986 in an article by sociologist Amitai Etzioni in the Washington Post and listed in the Oxford English Dictionary that same year . Only later did Douglas Coupland include him in his "Lexicon of a New Labor Society" from the novel Generation X :

“A low paid job in the service sector with little dignity , little use and no future . Often referred to as a satisfying career by people who have never had one. "

It is generally understood as an allusion to the low-wage jobs offered by the McDonald’s company . In the United States in particular , workers in the low-wage sector are losing social entitlements and labor rights. There is no social and pension insurance, protection against dismissal or entitlement to unemployment benefit. In Germany there is formally a valid collective bargaining and collective agreement .

Controversy

In 2003, McDonald's took unsuccessful action against the entry "McJob" in the US Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary . In an image campaign since 2006, the group wants to take action against what it believes to be prejudices about job prospects, but without changing the actual precarious conditions.

"There's a huge gap between the outside perception and the internal reality of working for McDonald's."

- Vice President for Human Resources Northern Europe David Fairhurst to UK Media

McDonald's unsuccessfully asked the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2007 to change the entry “McJob” to reflect “a job that is stimulating and pays off, that offers real career prospects as well as the acquisition of lifelong skills are."

See also

• Precarization
• Working poor

literature

• Douglas Coupland: Generation X. Stories for an ever faster culture. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1995

Web links

• System gastronomy collective agreements - bundesverband-systemgastronomie.de
• McDonald's wants to get rid of "McJob" image . ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung

Individual evidence

1. ^ McJobs Are Good for Kids . Washington Post
2. ↑ McDonald's increases wages in the USA. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
3. ↑ McDonald's: Employees are now unpacking. Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
4. ↑ McDonald's defends itself against the Mc-Job definition . Mirror online