He had relations with one of his employees, expressly violating the company code , and will now receive $ 41.8 million as part of a compensation package after his dismissal. We talked about the former CEO of McDonald's, Stephen Easterbrook, beneficiary of a figure that has raised blisters in the United States and extended the debate about wage disparity.

The package includes six months of salary, about $ 675,000, and a final salary that will exceed $ 40 million , including the stock options that you can execute freely after losing your position.

The agreement with Easterbrook is even more scandalous compared to the average salary in a multinational such as McDonald's, generally associated with the worst-considered and paid jobs of the labor ladder in the United States. In 2018, he entered a total of 15.9 million dollars, 2,124 times more than the average salary, with a base of nine dollars per hour.

"Wow!, He is taking a lot of money," said Stewart Schwab, a law professor at Cornell University, in an interview with a public radio station. "And it 's part of the story of how 1% receive a lot more money than the rest of the workers in this economy . "

So much in fact, that this small group of billionaires already has almost as much wealth as the entire American middle class, according to Federal Reserve data published on Saturday.

The richest rich

The richest 10% accumulate goods worth 35.4 billion dollars, slightly below the 36.9 billion of the middle and upper middle class combined. That is, the remaining 90% of citizens.

Far from having contributed to this redistribution of the wealth that Obama was talking about during his presidency, the economic boom of the last decade in the US has resulted in explosive gains in the stock market for the elite and a stagnation of the purchasing power of The working classes.

The case of the former CEO of McDonald's, beyond the moral debate about the reason for his dismissal, is another example of the chasm that exists between social classes in the first world power. During the four years he led the fast food emporium, Easterbrook had the problem in his own home, accused of paying misery to his employees.

In May of this year, many of them took to the streets in 13 cities of the country to demand a salary increase up to $ 15 per hour. That is among a list of complaints that included a culture of sexual harassment of employees in restaurants.

The MeToo

The #MeToo was thrown at Easterbrook and his board, accused for the third time in three years of allowing sexual abuse of women by co-workers and their bosses. The pending lawsuits include cases of non-consensual touching, indecent exposure, lewd comments and express requests for sexual relations, as well as reprisals for denouncing those behaviors. It is alleged that the incidents occurred in corporate stores and franchises in 20 cities.

"It is a brutal reality in the entire fast food industry that at least one in four workers, especially women of color who work in low-wage jobs, experience sexual harassment as a routine part of their employment," said Sharyn Tejani, director of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund in a statement.

"Every day, workers are forced to choose between receiving a paycheck or talking about their abuse. When they report harassment, workers are often fired or their shifts are cut, and how nothing is done to stop it , the scourge continues. "

Violated the internal code

Easterbrook tried to tackle the problem with a letter to employees in which he said he was struggling to create an environment free of injustices in his corporation. Paradoxically, he ended up violating the internal rules and had to step aside. Theirs, it must be clarified, had nothing to do with sexual harassment. His relationship with a McDonald's employee was by mutual agreement.

Easterbrook, a 52-year-old British executive, divorced and with three children who eat Big Mac's two or three times a month, acknowledged in a statement that he was wrong, violating the part of McDonald's internal code that says "it is not appropriate to show favoritism or making business decisions based on emotions or friendships instead of what is best for the interests of the company. "

It's a goodbye served on a silver platter and an unusual package for a CEO after a layoff. Behind could hide the fear of a possible legal dispute that would be much more expensive in the future. A round play for the beneficiary, in any case.

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  • U.S
  • Barack Obama
  • sexual harassment

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