John Oliver raked Fox News over the coals on Thursday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” mocking the network’s parade of conservative commentators for their opposition to striking fast food workers who are demanding higher wages.
After running a clip of Greg Gutfeld suggesting that raising wages for low-income workers will make things a little too cushy, Oliver mockingly elaborated on the argument.
“If you raise the minimum wage, people will never stop working in the fast food industry,” Oliver said. “They’ll get so comfortable in those hot kitchens and in their acrylic uniforms, relaxing in that grease fog, smelling like processed meat no matter how many showers they take.”
Next up for Oliver’s wrath was Gutfeld’s co-host of “The Five,” Andrea Tantaros, who said that if the “Obama economy” was stronger, the striking fast food workers would surely already be receiving higher wages.
“Yes, because that’s how capitalism works,” Oliver observed. “Companies always pass on higher profits to their lower-level workers. That’s a fact.”
But the interim host saved his most stinging blow for Wall Street cheerleader Neil Cavuto, a Fox News financial analyst who waxed nostalgic about his days earning $2 an hour as a 16-year-old fast food worker. Oliver pointed out that the current median age of fast workers is 28, much different than “a 16-year-old Neil Cavuto getting his first job to earn money for beer and porn.” Moreover, Oliver highlighted the fact that when the $2 wage Cavuto earned in 1974 is adjusted for inflation, it comes out to $9.47 per hour — $2.22 more than the current federal minimum wage.
“It’s incredible that he had the incentive to leave that for his high-paying job on television right now,” Oliver said. “He really pulled himself up by his bootstraps.”
