A video has surfaced of McDonald's representive giving an employees information on how to collect food stamps.
A website called LowPayIsNotOk.org, which is described as a campaign of fast food workers in favor of a $15 an hour wage, recorded a phone call made to the helpline by a McDonald's worker, Nancy Salgado.
Salgado, who has worked at a Chicago McDonald's for 10 years and makes $8.25 an hour, said she's never received a raise. The mother of two is heard asking the "McResource" representative a number of questions related to getting assistance to pay for her heating bill, her groceries and her sister's medical expenses.
Salgado told the representative that she was recording the call for her sister.
The helpline operator never asked Salgado how much she made per hour, and how many hours per week she worked. The representative then pointed her toward a number of resources in Chicago, such as food pantries and a program that would help cover some of her heating bill.
The operator said she would email her specific phone numbers and programs. The helpline's phone number is posted on fliers at many McDonald's locations, CNN reported.
"This video is not an accurate portrayal of the resource line as this is very obviously an edited video," a spokeswoman for McDonald's said in a statement, according to CNN. "The fact is that the McResource Line is intended to be a free, confidential service to help employees and their families get answers to a variety of questions or provide resources on a variety of topics including housing, child care, transportation, grief, elder care, education and more."
But the line is not open to all McDonald's workers. Franchise owners need to pay for the service in order for their employees to use it. The spokesperson said that Salgado did not pay, despite reports and computer system stating she did.
News of the McResource line comes a week after a report found that more than half of fast food workers have to rely on public assistance programs since their wages are not enough to support them. The report estimated this public aid carries a $7 billion price tag for taxpayers each year.
A separate report by the National Employment Law Project showed McDonald's alone was responsible for $1.2 billion of that $7 billion alone. McDonald's said its independent franchisees "provide jobs in every state to hundreds of thousands of people across the country."
"Those jobs range from entry-level part-time to full-time, from minimum wage to salaried positions, and we offer everyone the same opportunity for advancement," the company said.
