McJob

Etymology: McDonald’s (brand name) + job (English) → McJob (American English, 1986)

The word “McJob” appeared in print as early as 1986, when sociologist Amitai Etzioni used it in a Washington Post article titled “McJobs Are Bad for Kids.”¹ The term applied the “Mc” prefix from McDonald’s to describe any low-paying, low-status position in the service sector where little training was required and workers’ activities were tightly controlled.

Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture gave the word its widest audience. In the book’s margin glossary, a McJob was defined as “a low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one.”²

The Oxford English Dictionary added “McJob” in 2001, defining it as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector.”³ Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary followed in 2003, describing it as “low-paying and dead-end work.”

McDonald’s fought back. In 2007, the company’s UK division launched a public petition to have the OED’s definition changed, arguing it was “out of date and inaccurate.” The company ran an advertising campaign in London with the tagline “Not Bad for a McJob.” The OED responded that dictionaries record how language is used, not how a particular company wishes it were used.⁴

McDonald’s had actually registered “McJOBS” as a U.S. trademark in 1984, four years before the word became pejorative, as the name of a program for training workers with disabilities. The trademark lapsed in 1992 and was restored after Coupland’s novel reached paperback.⁵ A company created a word to describe a good deed, and the language turned it into a synonym for dead-end work.

Timeline

• 1986 — Amitai Etzioni used “McJob” in a Washington Post article about teen employment.
• 1991 — Douglas Coupland’s Generation X popularized the term in a glossary definition.
• 2001 — Oxford English Dictionary added “McJob” with a pejorative definition.
• 2007 — McDonald’s UK launched a public petition to change the dictionary definition. The OED declined.