McDonald’s, in partnership with Visa, have been ridiculed across the Web for offering up a budget (pdf) for minimum-wage employees to follow.

For starters, the plan assumes the employee must work two jobs, because one 35-hour a week position at $7.89 per hour only yields a little more than $1,100 a month. But with a second job, the worker could take home a beefy $2,060 each month.

With that income in mind, McDonald’s/Visa advised these spending limits, among others:

Rent: $600

Car payment: $150

Health insurance: $20

Food: $0

Clothing: $0

Food wasn’t listed in the budget, so perhaps McDonald’s assumed that cost would come out of the $27 for daily living it recommended.

Daniel Gross at The Daily Beast noted that if a McDonald’s employee is a teenager living at home, the budget might make sense. “And time was, people in such a situation comprised a big chunk of McDonald’s workforce,” he wrote.

“But that’s no longer the case. Many people who work at McDonald’s and other large low-wage employers are trying to support themselves and others. The fantasy budget suggests what most people already know: it is really, really hard to have a decent life when your hourly wages are low,” Gross added.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

McDonald’s and Visa Conjure Fantasy Budget for Low-Wage Employees (by Daniel Gross, Daily Beast)

McDonalds Tells Workers To Budget By Getting A Second Job And Turning Off Their Heat (by Annie-Rose Strasser, ThinkProgress)

That McDonald’s Budget People are Making Fun of Isn’t Cruel. It’s Realistic. (by Timothy B. Lee, Washington Post)

Practical Money Skills: Budget Journal (Visa, Inc. and Wealth Watchers International) (pdf)

No Overtime Pay for McDonald’s Workers on Christmas Day (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

One Million Apply for 62,000 Jobs…with McDonald’s (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)