What's new
By:
Filters

Ready for the $9 Big Mac, for real?

LogGrad98

LogGrad98

Well-Known Member
Contributor
2020-21 Award Winner
2022 Award Winner
2023 Award Winner
2024 Award Winner
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fast-food-workers-intensify-fight-011826374.html

ADDISON, Ill. — As labor gatherings go, this one was highly unusual — 68 workers arrived on charter buses from St. Louis, 100 from New York City and 180 from Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. Fifty flew in from Los Angeles and two dozen from Seattle.

Related Stories

Fast food workers prepare to escalate wage demands Associated Press
Fast-food workers ready to escalate wage demands USA TODAY
Fast food workers vow civil disobedience Associated Press
Workers Say McDonald's Fired Them for Union Activity Bloomberg
McDonald's May Be Responsible for What Franchisees Do, After All BusinessWeek
These were not well-paid carpenters or autoworkers heading to their annual convention, hoping to sneak in a round of golf. Rather they were fast-food workers — 1,200 of them — from McDonald’s, Burger King and other chains, eager to pursue their ambitious goal of creating a $15-an-hour wage floor for the nation’s four million fast-food workers.
Click to expand...
 
I'll be the first to say that the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else has got to stop. But I have a problem with this on two fronts. First, companies need to make a profit. And for many that means a healthy profit. If said companies are forced to pay many of their employees this proposed rate, we will see their prices either rise (and very possibly steeply) and/or these companies go under because they can no longer make a profit. My bigger problem is with the idea of paying uneducated, unskilled people what they think they deserve to do the most basic tasks. It reeks of the sense of entitlement that has run rampant through this country. I firmly believe that the minimum wage rate needs to go up, a lot even. But this increase is so beyond ridiculous.
 
Sounds good to me. Maybe fatass people will stop eating garbage food and America can save money not supporting the fat.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
I'll be the first to say that the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else has got to stop. But I have a problem with this on two fronts. First, companies need to make a profit. And for many that means a healthy profit. If said companies are forced to pay many of their employees this proposed rate, we will see their prices either rise (and very possibly steeply) and/or these companies go under because they can no longer make a profit. My bigger problem is with the idea of paying uneducated, unskilled people what they think they deserve to do the most basic tasks. It reeks of the sense of entitlement that has run rampant through this country. I firmly believe that the minimum wage rate needs to go up, a lot even. But this increase is so beyond ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Pretty much exactly how I feel about it.
 
First of all lets get this straight. All restaurant food is generally unhealthy. Not just fast food. Restaurants put just as much unhealthy stuff in foods. A Chicken Fajita omelette at IHOP is 1050 calories. Almost double of a Big Mac. I can make a nice Chicken Fajita omelette just as filling at home for 300 calories.

In and out pays its employee's like 12 bucks an hour and has healthcare benefits. I want minimum wage to increase I don't think its fair the owners of companies get rich while the laborers slave away for **** pay.
 
Labor is only about 20% of the cost of typical franchise burger (the meat is the most expensive part). $3.00*20%*2 = $1.20 (assuming all of the costs are passed on to the consumer), raising the price from $3 to $4.20. That's in states at the federal level, many states have higher minimum wages.

Talking about $9 Big Macs is a scare tactic.
 
In my experiences in UTC, the small business restaurant owners and franchisees pay much higher wages than the corporate owned chain stores. I find no validity in the argument that McDonalds will have to raise prices because they cannot afford to pay workers well. Raising minimum wage will affect their bottom line instead of the prices that are already set by the market. Their stock price has tripled the S&P500 gains over the last decade while paying healthy dividends. I think we can stop worrying about and patronizing Poor Guy Ronald.
 
$9.00 Big Mac? I'd have to play a coupon before I could afford that! Fast food places make there biggest profit on Soda's and french fries! They should increase those prices, keep the hamburgers reasonable and like me, buy my own drink at discount prices elsewhere!
 
Also, I won't allow my children to work in one of these **** holes for minimum wage. What a waste of time when they could be gaining skills and making more money.
 
One Brow said:
Labor is only about 20% of the cost of typical franchise burger (the meat is the most expensive part). $3.00*20%*2 = $1.20 (assuming all of the costs are passed on to the consumer), raising the price from $3 to $4.20. That's in states at the federal level, many states have higher minimum wages.

Talking about $9 Big Macs is a scare tactic.
Click to expand...
Possibly the best OB post of all time.

Good info. I learned something today
 
franklin said:
I find no validity in the argument that McDonalds will have to raise prices because they cannot afford to pay workers well. Raising minimum wage will affect their bottom line instead of the prices that are already set by the market.
Click to expand...

More good info
 
franklin said:
In my experiences in UTC, the small business restaurant owners and franchisees pay much higher wages than the corporate owned chain stores. I find no validity in the argument that McDonalds will have to raise prices because they cannot afford to pay workers well. Raising minimum wage will affect their bottom line instead of the prices that are already set by the market. Their stock price has tripled the S&P500 gains over the last decade while paying healthy dividends. I think we can stop worrying about and patronizing Poor Guy Ronald.
Click to expand...

If this wage increase was to happen, and McDonalds kept their menu prices the same, their profits would decline. Substantially. The board of directors will want to know why profits have declined, the answers will be obvious and there will be two solutions. Raise prices or terminate employees. Either outcome is bad for the public.

Sure the CEO could be fired but good luck finding a competent CEO at a discount...or any kind of a discount to even coming close to offsetting their decline in profits.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
If this wage increase was to happen, and McDonalds kept their menu prices the same, their profits would decline. Substantially. The board of directors will want to know why profits have declined, the answers will be obvious and there will be two solutions. Raise prices or terminate employees. Either outcome is bad for the public.
Click to expand...

The market sets prices, not some board of directors. I can see them trying to cut back the workforce, but as you point out the board's job is to increase profit margins so they are already trying to cut staff. Wages will not change that goal.

Either way, I think paying kids a "living wage" is a dumb idea. For one thing, it will disincetivize them from going to school or otherwise gaining higher skills. $15/hr will trap a lot of people in poverty.
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
If this wage increase was to happen, and McDonalds kept their menu prices the same, their profits would decline. Substantially. The board of directors will want to know why profits have declined, the answers will be obvious and there will be two solutions. Raise prices or terminate employees. Either outcome is bad for the public.

Sure the CEO could be fired but good luck finding a competent CEO at a discount...or any kind of a discount to even coming close to offsetting their decline in profits.
Click to expand...

Estimates have 500,000+ people working for McDonalds (simple google search). Let us say that 350,000 of them are at minimum wage and that they will get an increase of $1.75 an hour (average over 3.50k employees) under this new law. That is 350,000 x 1.75 = $612,500 per hour in increased wages.

Let us say that they work an average of 32 hours a week. That is 612,500 x 32 = 19,600,000.00 a week in pay increases. A year is 52 x 19,600,000 = 1,019,200,000 in wage increases.

In 2013 McDonald's profit (according to the Huff Post) was 1.5 billion. So by granting this McDonalds has reduced their profits by 66%. That is devestating to their bottom line and shareholders. Right?

How would/could they not increase prices? Not trying to call anyone out , as I do not have enough knowledge of the economy or finances to do so, but genuinely lost as to how it doesn't land on the customer. Is my math off?
 
QuinSnydersHair said:
I'll be the first to say that the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else has got to stop. But I have a problem with this on two fronts. First, companies need to make a profit. And for many that means a healthy profit. If said companies are forced to pay many of their employees this proposed rate, we will see their prices either rise (and very possibly steeply) and/or these companies go under because they can no longer make a profit. My bigger problem is with the idea of paying uneducated, unskilled people what they think they deserve to do the most basic tasks. It reeks of the sense of entitlement that has run rampant through this country. I firmly believe that the minimum wage rate needs to go up, a lot even. But this increase is so beyond ridiculous.
Click to expand...

lol

What kind of "skills" do you think the average factory worker has had (if you take some kind of average over the past 400 years)? Most of what defines this kind of work is playing a simple role in a much larger assemblage of production. I'd even say that fast food establishments resemble the factory more than any other institution that is ubiquitous in our lives.

Which brings me to my point. What sort of entitlements have factory workers felt over the generations? How did their skills justify these entitlements (most of whom were very replaceable)?

This all comes down to a fair share of profits, plain and simple. These fast food establishments aren't pioneers of a new industry -- and, therefore, in need of coddling/protectionisms so that their insights can fully catalyze new economic growth. Make them pay.

Off the point slightly: these establishments are extremely parasitic in terms of how they acquire their meat and produce. Rainforest beef, etc., you've heard the arguments. They run afoul of the true costs of production as much as any basic industry in the world... right up there with mining and oil. Let's at least make them pay their employees.
 
The funny thing is, by pushing the minimum wage to $15, these people are going to lose their jobs. Mcds in Europe has already begun replacing order takers with touch screens. And they have gotten rid of some staff with robots already. If you double the cost of labor, it will incentivize McDonalds to invest in more automation. Hell, I'd prefer a touchscreen with automated food making over many of these order takers. My food will be cleaner and I know it will be made right and consistent. At least I'd know my order was input correctly. Hopefully at $15 an hour you would get more qualified workers.

https://www.cnet.com/news/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-screen-cashiers/
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014...t-minimum-wage-crushing-burger-flipping-robot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top