Strikes at McDonald's, Wendy's to pay employees $15 hour.

JaneDough_

"Picketers in seven cities say McDonald's, Wendy's and other fast-food chains should pay employees $15 an hour. But the restaurant industry says that would force those companies to cut jobs."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/30/206714894/fast-food-strikers-demand-a-living-wage?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130730

You are kidding me, right? $15 an hour to flip burgers? NO. Just no. GTFO. Am I the only one who thinks that these people are out of their damn mind? This is exactly the kind of bullsh^t mentality that has all our jobs being outsourced to other countries. I can almost hear people complaining about immigrants taking our jobs.... you know why they do, because they don't f%^%$ ask for $15 bucks to flip a damn burger!!! Ugh

MB_Positif

It's insane. If that's the case I will quit architecture and work there because at least I can just screw around all day and not have to worry about whether someone's house is going to fall down because of my mistake. Too much stress for the peanuts I make.

JaneDough_

This makes me rage. Seriously. Like angry rage. What the f%ck is wrong with people!?! No, you don't get effing $15 dollars to flip burgers you lazy #@$#@$#%#$@T^



$15 dollars?!!!!!



15!!!!!

vim_n_vigor

I will quit my salaried position to make $15 an hour someplace where they can't even figure out how to wipe tables or sweep floors!

MB_Positif

I am all for people being paid a fair wage, but then it should be the opposite of trickle down economics...where's my pay increase for the work I have to do. Is that going to trickle up once fast food employees start making $15/hr?

Disclaimer, I have no idea if I have used the term trickle down economics properly. I just like saying trickle.

rml_16

I didn't make $15 an hour for jobs that required a college education.

And how many people are working entry level fast food jobs (I know there are SOME, but is it a vast majority?) to take care of families? Aren't a lot of them high school and college kids?

UsedToBeHusky

Yes... it really is crazy. Hell, I work for the government and already seriously underpaid and I have two degrees working on a third. I'm on salary, but when you do the math, I don't even make $15 an hour.

You do realize that the price of the food at those restaurants would have to triple or quadruple to make up the labor costs, and the inevitable lost customers that refuse to pay $20 for a Big Mac.

MB_Positif

I didn't make $15 an hour for jobs that required a college education.

And how many people are working entry level fast food jobs (I know there are SOME, but is it a vast majority?) to take care of families? Aren't a lot of them high school and college kids?

Where I live there are a good amount of adults that work at the fast food restaurants. That said, it's not that they don't deserve more money, but it just doesn't make sense as you already pointed out that people with college educations don't even always make $15 an hour right now.

k8blujay2

This burns my butt... I started out in a salaried position that required training (though I have a degree in it a high school diploma and two years experience were all that was required for this particular position) at $18/hour....

I'm sorry, but many skilled positions don't even make that much (it took my brother who works in HVAC and as an electrician years to get there)... to work in fast food you don't even have to have a highschool education or even be proficient in the English language and "they" expect to be paid as much as those that have learned a skill/trade/craft/etc.? I'm thinking no. You don't want to work in a job that was never meant to be a career then go get a real skill... pushing a button with pictures on it is not a real skill. Hell, the fryers are all pretty much automated.. you don't even have to know how long to keep the chicken nuggets in the fryer... you just push a button with chicken or fries on it and the machine does the rest for you.

rml_16

I didn't make $15 an hour for jobs that required a college education.

And how many people are working entry level fast food jobs (I know there are SOME, but is it a vast majority?) to take care of families? Aren't a lot of them high school and college kids?

Where I live there are a good amount of adults that work at the fast food restaurants. That said, it's not that they don't deserve more money, but it just doesn't make sense as you already pointed out that people with college educations don't even always make $15 an hour right now.

Oh, I make more than that now. But I had to work my way to it. I had minimum wage, unskilled labor jobs while working on my education, then went out into the full-time workforce. I made $10 an hour at my very first full-time job, that did not require a degree. Then decided to pursue journalism (talk about underpaid). I started at $8 an hour at my first newspaper job. I probably would have made more at McDonald's. lol

And I think the fast food industry likes to promote from within so some of the burger flippers can work up to management and the managers do very well.

If they want to make more money, they should work on moving up in the world and not staying in those jobs.

(Edited because I made a terrible -- typo? -- and I am an editor and need to be worthy of MY salary! lol)

MB_Positif

I didn't make $15 an hour for jobs that required a college education.

And how many people are working entry level fast food jobs (I know there are SOME, but is it a vast majority?) to take care of families? Aren't a lot of them high school and college kids?

Where I live there are a good amount of adults that work at the fast food restaurants. That said, it's not that they don't deserve more money, but it just doesn't make sense as you already pointed out that people with college educations don't even always make $15 an hour right now.

Oh, I make more than that now. But I had to work my way to it. I had minimum wage, unskilled labor jobs while working on my education, then went out into the full-time workforce. I made $10 an hour at my very first full-time job, that did not require a degree. Then decided to pursue journalism (talk about underpaid). I started at $8 an hour at my first newspaper job. I probably would have made more at McDonald's. lol

And I think the fast food industry likes to promote from within so something he burger flippers can work up to management and the managers do very well.

If they want to make more money, they should work on moving up in the world and not staying in those jobs.

Haha, me too! I had to work up to it too though. My first full time job after college I started at $12.75 per hour.

soldier4242

The second I heard about this I immediately suspected that what they really just want is a raise. They are saying that they want $15.00 and hour but they are hoping for a counter offer. There is no way a burger flipper should be making the same money that I was making 4 years ago when I was an A+ Certified bench tech.

FearAnLoathingJ

I think they just want to make more than 7.25 an hour. But 15 dollars is a bit much. cashiers at aldis grocery store make 11.25 an hour plus,and they don't even have to bag anything lol

JaneDough_

I would really like to read more opinions on this.

soldier4242

But you already have my opinion. Why would you need more than that?

tomomatic

I think it's important to study what's an acceptable minimum wage in different parts of the country. If you ask someone in NYC or California what it costs to get by, you'll get a dramatically different answer than Detroit or Jacksonville. $15 a year equates to $30k a year (40 hours x 50 weeks) or $2500 per month. After you subtract taxes (45%), that's about $1125 to spend on rent, food, and other basic necessities. In NYC, a 1 bed and 1 bath place will run you about $800 to 1000. Can you live on $325-125 for everything else that month? With kids?

If you look at Detroit, rent for a 1 bedroom will cost about $400 and leave $725 in a person's pocket.

I think the obvious question is, "why don't you move out of NYC?" That's a different discussion. A coast to coast flat $15 an hour minimum wage seems poorly thought out.

k8blujay2

I think it's important to study what's an acceptable minimum wage in different parts of the country. If you ask someone in NYC or California what it costs to get by, you'll get a dramatically different answer than Detroit or Jacksonville. $15 a year equates to $30k a year (40 hours x 50 weeks) or $2500 per month. After you subtract taxes (45%), that's about $1125 to spend on rent, food, and other basic necessities. In NYC, a 1 bed and 1 bath place will run you about $800 to 1000. Can you live on $325-125 for everything else that month? With kids?

If you look at Detroit, rent for a 1 bedroom will cost about $400 and leave $725 in a person's pocket.

I think the obvious question is, "why don't you move out of NYC?" That's a different discussion. A coast to coast flat $15 an hour minimum wage seems poorly thought out.

But even now, different states will have different minimum wages, they just cannot go below the federal minimum. Texas' minimum wage is $7.25 (which is also the federal minimum wage), while California's is $8.

lour441

I believe in letting the free market decide what a fair salary is but this is ridiculous. People have to be really desperate for a job to work at a place in NYC for 7.25 an hour. Shame on Wendy's for exploiting people at such a high volume location. I am surprised NYC of all places would allow that.

To give some perspective... 20 years ago I worked at a deli in Penn Station, Newark at a very high volume place and made $10 per hour. There is no way I would have stayed there for 7.25 for the amount of work I did.

UsedToBeHusky

I think they just want to make more than 7.25 an hour. But 15 dollars is a bit much. cashiers at aldis grocery store make 11.25 an hour plus,and they don't even have to bag anything lol

OMG! I need a new job!! I don't even make that much, and I'm in administration!! :noway:

With two degrees!!

tomomatic

I think it's important to study what's an acceptable minimum wage in different parts of the country. If you ask someone in NYC or California what it costs to get by, you'll get a dramatically different answer than Detroit or Jacksonville. $15 a year equates to $30k a year (40 hours x 50 weeks) or $2500 per month. After you subtract taxes (45%), that's about $1125 to spend on rent, food, and other basic necessities. In NYC, a 1 bed and 1 bath place will run you about $800 to 1000. Can you live on $325-125 for everything else that month? With kids?

If you look at Detroit, rent for a 1 bedroom will cost about $400 and leave $725 in a person's pocket.

I think the obvious question is, "why don't you move out of NYC?" That's a different discussion. A coast to coast flat $15 an hour minimum wage seems poorly thought out.

But even now, different states will have different minimum wages, they just cannot go below the federal minimum. Texas' minimum wage is $7.25 (which is also the federal minimum wage), while California's is $8.

My understanding is that the fast food employees were striking to get $15 an hour everywhere. That's why I think they're going to fail. There's no way that the McDonalds Execs a're going to go for this.

soldier4242

People going on strike is an example of the free market deciding the fair wage. The company makes an offer and the employees either accept the offer or they don't.

A strike is an example of the employees saying that they are no longer happy with the wage they have been receiving.

Now the company can either raise the wage to a level that they would consider acceptable or they can reject their demands fire them and hire other employees at their current rate.

I suppose a third option would be to make a counter offer that is more than they used to make but less than they are asking.