McJob

English

Etymology

From Mc- +‎ job (derogatory), entry level jobs at McDonald's restaurants being considered to be this sort of job.

Noun

McJob (plural McJobs)

1. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) A typically entry-level job, often part-time or temporary, generally paying low wages and requiring minimal training, such as entry level positions at fast food restaurants.

   What are you going to do this summer? –I'm going to find a McJob for the evenings and hang out at the beach during the day.

   • 1987 Mar 9, Steve Forbes, Major problem with the American economy: hypochondria, in Forbes 139, p33.

     Many politicos claim most new jobs are low-pay, dead-enders, “McJobs.”

   • 1989 Oct 19, Paul Grondahl, Managers get behind the grill, in Albany Times Union, pC1

     Shortly after the opening of the Latham McDonald’s, the first in the Capital District, Zdunek, then 16, hopped on his Cushman motor scooter, rode from his Halfmoon home and applied for his first Mcjob. The wage was $1.25 an hour.

   • 1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 5:

     The car was the color of butter and bore a bumper sticker saying WE’RE SPENDING OUR CHILDREN’S INHERITANCE, a message that I suppose irked Dag, who was bored and cranky after eight hours of working his McJob (“Low pay, low prestige, low benefits, low future”).

Translations

low-paying, minimally skilled job

• Finnish: paskaduuni (fi), hanttihomma
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

• List of words formed from the prefix Mc- derived from McDonald’s