This week, two former McDonald's managers admitted to making staff members work without paying them because of corporate labor cost cuts. The managers said that they would have employees work while off the clock before and after their regular shifts.

The news was released through a video by working conditions advocacy group, Fast Food Forward.

Kwanza Brooks, a former manager, worked for McDonald's for a decade in Maryland and North Carolina. Brooks reported that the worst thing that she was asked to do was adjust a worker's time. "They did the work. They were there," Brooks said. "They deserve to get paid for what they did. It's a job."

Brooks explained how managers would log breaks that employees never took, ignore hours before and after shifts that employees worked and did not pay overtime. Managers would also illegally deduct pay from meals eaten and clothing violations. 

Another former manager, Lakia Williams, worked for the company in South Carolina for six years, explained an instance where an employee worked more than 40 hours and the store's general manager responded with moving the extra hours worked to a different pay period.

Williams emphasized that employees were mothers with multiple jobs who needed every hour of the work to count for something. 

"They can't afford to pay their bills," Williams said.

McDonald's responded to the accusations by denying that the company does not pay its employees, attributing the reports to individual cases and not company-wide policy or practice. However, recent lawsuits have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars payed to former employees who sued franchises for withholding pay. McDonald's has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and payed back wages 300 times in the past few decades.