Meanings
plural McJobs
- colloquialderogatorysometimesA 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.
3 more examples
Many politicos claim most new jobs are low-pay, dead-enders, “McJobs.”
1987 March 9, Steve Forbes, “Major problem with the American economy: hypochondria”, in Forbes, 139, p33Shortly 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.
1989 October 19, Paul Grondahl, “Managers get behind the grill”, in Albany Times Union, page C1The 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”).
1991, Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 5
Origin
From Mc- + job, entry-level jobs at McDonald's restaurants being considered to be this sort of job.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Esperanto laboraĉado
- laboraĉadolow-paying, minimally skilled job
Finnish paskaduuni, hanttihomma
- paskaduunilow-paying, minimally skilled job
- hanttihommalow-paying, minimally skilled job
Swedish skitjob, slavgöra
- skitjoblow-paying, minimally skilled job
- slavgöralow-paying, minimally skilled job
- grottekvarnlow-paying, minimally skilled job
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with McJob
Cite this entry
McJob. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/McJob
“McJob.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/McJob. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “McJob,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/McJob.
Source: McJob on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.