A Beef Against Big Mac

Under countless pairs of golden arches, the supersuccessful McDonald's hamburger chain is quietly changing "more than 7 billion sold" to "more than 8 billion served," a gambit designed to strengthen its No. 1 position among the nation's fast-food outlets. The U.S. Government has awarded the chain another first: Department of Labor lawsuits charging 14 Milwaukee-area McDonald's restaurants with sex discrimination--against men.

Actually, say McDonald's officials, the men were boys: high school students working the evening hours for the then-minimum wage of $1.30 per hour. But when the boys are in school during the noontime rush, housewives come in to work from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Since few of them would work for $3.90 per day, McDonald's devised a "short-shift premium" to bring noon wages up to as much as $2 an hour.

The Government originally opened its case against McDonald's by suing two Chicago outlets, which quickly settled. Now, however, McDonald's vows it will resist, citing as precedent the commonplace nighttime differential paid in factories. Says John Hatch, a McDonald's attorney: "We won't pay one cent of back wages without a fight."

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