

Or, McDonald's Could Double Wages For Employees, And Just Make Less Money - grecy
http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-could-double-wages-for-employees-and-make-less-money-2013-7#ixzz2aZHNwoL5

======
grahamburger
This is silly, and it won't help poor people. at least not for very long.

While McDonalds as a whole could afford the pay hike, some portion of it's
stores (10%? 20%? maybe 50%?) would become unprofitable overnight. Then what?
Shutter the stores? Lay off half the employees? Either way it's defeating the
purpose.

Also, new employees would be hired at the new wages (presumably) which means
McDonalds wouldn't be hiring poor people anymore. In 5 years or so, we'd have
people with associates degrees flipping burgers for $14 an hour, their shift
managers would have Bachelor's and make $18-20/hour. Not necessarily a bad
thing, but it won't help anyone out of poverty.

------
gexla
Could be worse. Where I'm located in the Philippines a local making typical
pay would have to spend an entire day of wages just to afford a 1/4 pounder w/
cheese meal (approx $3.75.) I don't know how much McD's employees make here,
but I'm assuming they make minimum wage (approx $6 / day) which is actually a
very good job here. Many local businesses in my area use loopholes to get
around the minimum wage laws.Though minimum wage varies by job classification.
The minimum wage for domestic helpers for example is something like $2.50 per
day.

Edit: Just to clarify, these prices are for the McD's in my city in the
Philippines. So, imagine that your local McD's is a luxury meal which costs
the equivalent of one day of pay.

------
dubfan
I'm all for giving low-wage workers a larger share of the productivity gains
made in the last few decades, but this kind of simplistic thinking doesn't
take the immense complexity of the macroeconomy into account. Prices on goods
won't simply stay flat. Stock prices will plummet, affecting pension funds and
individual investors (i.e. the middle class) disproportionately. Wage
disparity is a serious problem, and there's unfortunately no simple solution.

------
jessaustin
Well, maybe not:

[http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_big_mac_miss_by_the_huffingt....](http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_big_mac_miss_by_the_huffingt.php)

------
vladmk
Should companies double the pay of employees? Well if the employees aren't
complaining and people are willing to take the pay then what's really the
incentive?

~~~
anigbrowl
They're not going to complain if they're afraid of being fired. Restaurant
work is some of the hardest work out there, if you put in a full working week
that shouldn't leave someone in poverty.

~~~
mmorett
Working, no matter how many hours, does not dictate what you get paid. Your
value in the marketplace does. Fact is, fast food workers aren't very valuable
and are easily replaced. Hence, they get paid very little.

If you can throw touchdown passes like Brady or Rodgers, you'll get paid
millions. Can't do that? Ok...then if you could perform brain surgery, you'll
get paid less than top NFL QBs, but still in the millions. Can't do that?
Ok...then if you could write code or perform accounting work, you'll likely
get a decent 6 figure salary. Can't do that?

What can you do? Flip a burger? Seriously? There is no value in that. Bring
something to the table in order to get paid well. Bring some skill, some
education, some certification, some licensing. Bring something instead of
whining how your lack of skills and education cause you to be poorly paid.

~~~
anigbrowl
There's more to economics than just supply and demand.

 _What can you do? Flip a burger? Seriously? There is no value in that._

Hence the popularity of self-service burger restaurants...oh, wait. The thing
is you're assuming perfect competition, which is manifestly not an appropriate
model, since food service providers are engaged in monopolistic competition.

 _Bring something instead of whining how your lack of skills and education
cause you to be poorly paid._

I don't work in food service, I'm making a comment about people who do. Dial
that attitude back.

~~~
mmorett
Monopolistic competition? More whining. Fact is, the restaurants exist and
provide jobs at a certain level of pay. Job applicants are free to apply or
not apply. There is no monopoly. There are thousands upon thousands of
restaurants in the country. Dial that attitude back.

