The idea of ”McJobs”-- low-paying positions with little chance of advancement -- bothered the CEO of McDonald’s so much that when Merriam-Webster included the term in its dictionary in 2003 he wrote a public letter of protest. His plea went unheeded. ”McJobs” stayed. As this anecdote suggests the idea that franchises especially those in the fast-food sector create dead-end jobs is widespread. Yet in a new study Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and colleague Monika Hamori challenge conventional wisdom and offer evidence that franchise jobs tend to be better than those in equivalent non-franchise operations.