McDonald’s wants to fill 50K jobs on hiring day

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

McDonald’s Corp. wants to make “McJob” a juicy offer instead of a soggy bun, so the Oak Brook-based company is launching a marketing campaign that includes its first national hiring day April 19 to fill 50,000 openings at its restaurants nationwide. Of those, 800 jobs are available at 450 McDonald’s restaurants in the Chicago region.

McDonald’s accepts in-person and online job applicants every day, but the company is marketing the hiring day as its way of showing that people can work their way into successful careers under the Golden Arches.

Starting pay for crew workers varies by location and a worker’s experience, but ranges from minimum wage to $8 an hour, while salaried managers make up to $50,000 annually, a McDonald’s spokeswoman said Monday.

More than 50 percent of McDonald’s restaurant franchisee owners started as crew members, 75 percent of managers started as hourly workers and 40 percent of the corporate regional and headquarters staff started as crew workers, the spokeswoman said.

Sandra Guy