Forty percent of women working in fast food said they had experienced sexual harassment on the job, and 42 percent of those said they felt they had to accept the inappropriate treatment or else lose their jobs, according to a survey by Hart Research Associates.
“The research firm polled 1,217 women aged 16 or older who were working in non-managerial positions in fast-food restaurants between July 22 and 27, 2016,” says Eater. “The interviews indicated that 40 percent of the women experienced unwanted sexual behavior at work, with 28 percent reporting multiple incidents of harassment, including sexual jokes or teasing, touching, kissing, or comments about sexual orientation.”
Even before the survey was released, the fast food industry was under fire for not enforcing its own rules against sexual harassment. McDonald’s was recently hit with a lawsuit filed on behalf of 15 employees who said they had endured a variety of abuses on the job, from managers showing lewd photos to being groped. Chipotle also had to pay a female worker $7.65 million over charges that a manager had sexually harassed her.