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If you’re looking to understand the contradictions of contemporary capitalism, there’s no better place to start than the new Popeyes chicken sandwich. The source of backed-up drive-thru lines, fawning media profiles, and ecstatic dining experiences the country over, the sandwich’s release has become the premier fast food event of our time. Vice says that Popeyes’ new chef-d’oeuvre “ascends into a new level of gastronomic achievement that is both a culinary and scientific feat.” The Los Angeles Times claims the fast food delicacy now serves as an “economic indicator” of the country’s fiscal health. The New Yorker suggests the sandwich could “save America.” Why so much flattery for a simple $3.99 fried chicken sandwich? Well, first off, the taste and texture create an experience that is indeed transcendent. (I take mine spicy.) But perhaps more importantly, the sandwich is a uniquely American culinary creation that brings us together at a time of polarization; a succulent rara avis for the twenty-first century. Yet in the face of all this excitement stands a brutal reality: the profiteers of the Popeyes chicken sandwich craze are the bosses, while the workers bear the brunt. With orders exploding at locations nationwide, Popeyes’ employees are working harder under more grueling conditions and few benefits while corporate shareholders bask Scrooge McDuck–style in their riches. Such is the status quo under our market-driven industrial food system. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Everybody who wants one should be able to enjoy the new Popeyes chicken sandwich — and working people should be its beneficiaries, not its burdened.

Every day, fifty million Americans eat fast food — nearly one in seven people — a rate that hasn’t changed in fifteen years. That level of consumption generates a stunning $110 billion in revenue annually. In 2018, Restaurants Brands International Inc., which owns Popeyes along with Burger King and a number of other chains, reported $5.35 billion in revenue. Right now these massive earnings benefit a small group of investors, shareholders, and business owners. Cooks at Popeyes, on the other hand, earn an average of $8.32 an hour. Prep cooks make even less: $8.11. Since the new sandwich was introduced on August 12, restaurants across the country have been inundated, with long snaking lines, shortages of the sandwich, and a deluge of hungry, frustrated customers. On the front lines of this fried chicken chaos stand the very workers being paid starvation wages. Without allowing tips or any mechanism to pass down the financial gains from this surge in business, the launch of the chicken sandwich has become a curse rather than a gift for Popeyes’ workers. One immediate way to curb this racket would be to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour. With a full 20 percent of frontline fast food workers living below the poverty line, and many relying on food stamps and other benefits just to survive, raising the wage floor would deliver desperately needed relief to countless workers. While the company’s CEO Cheryl Bachelder recently defended its low wages on Fox Business by claiming the priority is to “grow top-line sales” and that an increase in employee pay would “raise prices for guests and lower hours for employees,” we know Popeyes won’t simply pass on the profit surge to its workers — the company will simply hoard that new wealth for executives like Bachelder. But pay hikes alone will not solve the injustices of the fast food industry, which is known for poor conditions and a lack of dignity on the job. To improve standards, fast food workers should be able to unionize without intimidation or threats from their bosses and collectively bargain on issues ranging from hours to paid leave. Higher wages and unionization should also be paired with national programs that provide more freedom for workers who now spend much of their lives serving up hot chicken and fries. A Medicare for All system would instantly provide comprehensive health care benefits to millions of fast food workers, nearly 90 percent of whom do not currently receive coverage through their employer. The comfort of knowing that a medical emergency would not lead to bankruptcy or other instabilities would dramatically improve workers’ quality of life. A similar impact could be expected by implementing a federal jobs guarantee.. How could such programs be paid for? One place to start would be with the benefactors of the current fast food system: the bosses. The fast food industry is the most unequal in the country, with employees occupying the position of the lowest-paid American workers, while the CEOs are some of the highest paid. As a 2017 Demos report shows, “In 2012, the compensation of fast food CEOs was more than 1,200 times the earnings of the average fast food worker.” In real terms, that’s meant less than $19,000 per year for workers, and $23.8 million for CEOs. Those earnings should be taxed at sky-high rates, along with the wealth and estates of fast food’s capitalist class.