[Gh0stRider]

U.S. fast-food customers in search of burgers on Thursday might run into striking workers instead.

Fast-food workers protested in U.S. cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit, with organizers expecting the biggest national walkouts yet in a demand for higher wages.

Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers were set to stage walkouts in about 50 cities, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay wages that people can live on. The restaurants were to stay open.

Workers say they want $15 US an hour, which would be about $31,000 US a year for full-time employees. That's more than double the federal minimum wage, which many fast food workers make, of $7.25 an hour, or $15,000 a year

White House urges higher minimum wage
The move comes amid calls from the White House, some members of Congress and economists to raise the minimum wage, which was last raised in 2009. But most proposals seek a far more modest increase than the one workers want. President Barack Obama wants to raise it to $9 an hour.

The push has brought considerable attention to the so-called "McJobs" that are known for their low pay and limited prospects.

Fast-food workers say they can't live on what they're paid.

Shaniqua Davis, 20, lives in New York City with her boyfriend, who is unemployed, and their one-year-old daughter. Davis works at a McDonald's, earning $7.25 an hour. Her schedule varies, but she never gets close to 40 hours a week. "Forty? Never. They refuse to let you get to that (many) hours."

Her weekly paycheque is $150 or much lower. Davis plans to take part in the strike Thursday.

McDonald's, Burger King respond
McDonald's Corp. and Burger King Worldwide Inc. say they don't make decisions about pay for the independent franchisees that operate the majority of their U.S. restaurants.

For the restaurants it does own, McDonald's said in a statement that pay starts at minimum wage but the range goes higher, depending on the employee's position and experience level. It said that raising entry-level wages would mean higher overall costs, which could result in higher prices on menus.

"That would potentially have a negative impact on employment and business growth in our restaurants, as well as value for our customers," the company said in a statement.

The Wendy's Co. and Yum Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, did not respond to a request for comment.

The National Restaurant Association says the low wages reflect the fact that most fast-food workers tend to be younger and have little work experience. Scott DeFife, a spokesman for the group, says that doubling wages would hurt job creation, noting that fast-food chains are already facing higher costs for ingredients, as well as new regulations that will require them to pay more in health care costs.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which is providing the fast-food strikes with financial support and training, said the actions in recent months show that fast-food workers can be mobilized, despite the industry's relatively higher turnover rates and younger age.

"The reality has totally blown through the obstacles," she said.

U.S. fast-food workers hold walkouts over low pay - Business - CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/08/29/business-fast-food-strike.html)

i think $15 is too much for fast food workers.

[Energy]

$15 seems unreasonable for an entry level fast food job.

[Ikkaku]

7.25 is pretty low imo lol but 15/hr for regular fast-food workers is pushing it.

Hell, our lot manager at the dealership doesn't even make that much

[dinamix]

They will never get 15

[Gh0stRider]

maybe $9 or $10.

[MG1]

That's the point. Ask for ten and you'll get eight.

[Bouncing Bettys]

If someone could post a clip from a few weeks ago of Stephen Colbert explaining McDick's employee financial planning pamphlet, that would really be helpful in such a discussion as this.

[hillmar]

When does entry level positions that are great student learning jobs make more then most jobs in the city. If it happens, there will be a mass competition for the fast food jobs and students will get bumped out of this great entry level job!
Posted via RS Mobile

[hillmar]

If Your Next Big Mac Is Made by a Robot, Thank 'Fast Food Forward' - YouTube (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NtY7FC9WdBs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNtY7FC9WdBs)
Posted via RS Mobile

[Hondaracer]

if you cant get a big mac meal order right making $8, why do you deserve 15?

[ScizzMoney]

http://cdn.meme.li/i/oghcg.jpg

[Gridlock]

$15 seems unreasonable for an entry level fast food job.

Hi! We pay them fucking $10/hour! $10 fucking dollars an hour!

We're not that far off. Pretty soon, much like Mexicans hopping the Grande to a new life, we're going to have waves of people coming north for a taste of our burger gold rush.

[Manic!]

If Your Next Big Mac Is Made by a Robot, Thank 'Fast Food Forward' - YouTube (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NtY7FC9WdBs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNtY7FC9WdBs)
Posted via RS Mobile

The problem is there are not enough high school workers and high school drop outs to fill all the positions.

[rsx]

Why not let the market speak for itself and not have a regulated minimum wage.

[Energy]

Hi! We pay them fucking $10/hour! $10 fucking dollars an hour!

We're not that far off. Pretty soon, much like Mexicans hopping the Grande to a new life, we're going to have waves of people coming north for a taste of our burger gold rush.

Hi! Are you saying that because we pay fast food workers fucking $10/hour that all the prospective fast food workers are going to want to work here as opposed to the US?

So we pay too much? :suspicious:

[trancehead]

just the cycle of inflation

[RRxtar]

Love the example they use "Shaniqua Davis, 20, lives in New York City with her boyfriend, who is unemployed, and their one-year-old daughter. Davis works at a McDonald's, earning $7.25 an hour."


brb urban youth. brb teen mom. brb unemployed baby-daddy. blame mcdonalds!

[ShadowBun]

IMO min. wagers should not have have (big) families

[Gridlock]

Well, fine then, my last post wasn't serious, but let's have a take on it.

Maybe we shouldn't, as a society, be trying to make McD's a family supporting career opportunity. Maybe we need to address that there is a growing portion of the American population that would like to just have a respectable job.

I know, might socialist for capitalist old me, but even I can see that there is an answer that doesn't focus on handouts.

You have a generation...let's call it for what it is, its blacks and immigrants that have a higher than statistical average population in prison, growing up poor, making bad decisions, leading to more incarceration, leading to further erosion.

Then we get all surprised when the crime rates go up in the inner city. We get surprised when drug use increases.

No. Shit.

[Bouncing Bettys]

We also have people racking up debt getting a post secondary education only to find there is no work in their field of study. One of the few options left to them is to work for minimum wage. Even at 40hrs a week that often isn't enough to stay afloat.

[Lomac]

$15/hr working at McDonalds... :lawl:

How's this for a thought... Working at a fast food joint, unless you're management or higher, isn't a career. It's a job designed to get you work experience and to help pay for college. I know apprentices in trades who don't even make $15 an hour (and, yes, I'm aware they'll easily make twice that once they become a journeyman, but still...).

We also have people racking up debt getting a post secondary education only to find there is no work in their field of study. One of the few options left to them is to work for minimum wage. Even at 40hrs a week that often isn't enough to stay afloat.

But then who's fault is that? If I decide to go into a specific field to study, the first thing I'll do is to look at the existing jobs and try to get a feel for what the job situation in four years will be. I'm not going to blindly get a degree in social economics, hoping that there will be a plethora of jobs available once I get out of school. And if I assume there will be, that fault will be on my shoulders, not the school's and not anyone else's.

[Anjew]

isnt the wages in calgary around 15dollars for mcdonalds in order to stay competitive?

[sdubfid]

isnt the wages in calgary around 15dollars for mcdonalds in order to stay competitive?

Rates are approx $13 here in fort mcmurray. Turnover is higher than between shaniquas legs. Oprah winni-free should smack some reality into those people. Don't like your bf, find a new one. Don't like your job, find a new one. Don't like your car, find a new one.
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[RFlush]

Shaniqua Davis, 20, lives in New York City with her boyfriend, who is unemployed, and their one-year-old daughter. Davis works at a McDonald's, earning $7.25 an hour. Her schedule varies, but she never gets close to 40 hours a week. "Forty? Never. They refuse to let you get to that (many) hours.

Maybe her problem isn't that $7.25 is too low, but her decision to bring a baby into this world with her unemployed boyfriend...

[J____]

IMO min. wagers should not have have (big) families

correction, min wagers should not have kids period

[melloman]

isnt the wages in calgary around 15dollars for mcdonalds in order to stay competitive?

Rates are approx $13 here in fort mcmurray. Turnover is higher than between shaniquas legs. Oprah winni-free should smack some reality into those people. Don't like your bf, find a new one. Don't like your job, find a new one. Don't like your car, find a new one.
Posted via RS Mobile

Wages will be more competitive to try and get people to work there.
Considering in Alberta you have oil galore and the railroads paying out big bucks, you need the less desired jobs to pay out more.

Same with Fort Mac where you have mines, lumber, etc.

[7seven]

These fast food workers need to shut the fuck up IMO. These jobs in the most part are meant to be entry level jobs for most to gain experience, some elevate to management positions within and most move onto better jobs. Don't like making $7.25 an hour, go learn a trade or get more education and find a new job if you want more pay. In most of these peoples cases (most not all), they have no one to blame but themselves for personal financial position they are in. All raising the minimum wage will do is increase operating costs to businesses, which will result in increase costs to consumers and potentially layoffs or cut backs in hours.

The worst was the girl CNN article

Wave of fast food strikes hits 50 cities - Aug. 29, 2013 (http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/29/news/fast-food-strikes/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)

Latoya Jemes, who's been working at a Memphis McDonald's for the past year, said ahead of the protests that she planned to join in.
She makes $7.45 an hour, and has to work overnights because she can't afford childcare during the day. Her mother watches her children during the night.

"I'm a single parent of three, and I'm living check to check," said Jemes, 24. "I only have enough to pay my rent, and I might be able to squeeze out the things that my kids need, but I'm not making enough."


You are a single parent of 3 at the age of 24, maybe you should've spent the time getting educated, learning a trade or being smarter instead of spreading your legs and making poor decisions to have kids when you clearly cannot afford it.

[68style]

Haha... it's a testament to the affordability of life in the U.S. that someone making $7.25 an hour can live check to check (I spelled it their way for continuity's sake) with 3 kids as she puts it. I'd like to see someone last 1 week up here in that situation :p

Birth control! It's cheaper than babies :D

[negative.one]

most of these places in the US that have a low minimum wage also have a low cost of living. If you compare our cost of living here in Vancouver, our minimum wage will, in most cases, be lower in perspective

[Phil@rise]

correction, min wagers should not have kids period

Ummm why is that?

[twitchyzero]

http://p.twimg.com/A6_CMDmCcAA-18e.jpg:large

in all seriousness...a lot of us have worked at Mickey Ds @ $6.50...it was no fun for me
$10 locally nowadaysis pretty damn good

[68style]

Ummm why is that?

Isn't it obvious? J______ envisions a hybrid world where only financially successful people are allowed to reproduce. He has deduced this after spending some of his spare time applying Darwin's theories to Hitler's teachings while harbouring a healthy disregard for the fact much of China, Southeast Asia, Africa and India would be banned from reproduction (and ignoring the fact there's a good chance he wouldn't even exist today) were this 'rule' actually enforced :troll:

[Traum]

There are lots of reasons why people with lower education backgrounds / lower waged jobs will almost always have more kids than those with higher income. But one of the biggest factors is because their opportunity costs to do so is lower. Imagine a (female) doctor / lawyer giving birth. If she normally makes $200k a year and she only takes 3 months off to give birth and look after her newborn, she is still losing $50k's worth of income. Whereas for someone making $20k a year, even if she takes a whole year's worth of mat leave, she is still "only" losing $20k in wages.

[stewie]

if they go on strike theres gonna be a looooooooooooooooot of hungry americans...

but for a lot of them that make a career out of fast food employment, how many of them, such as shaniqua davis, are young, have kids, have a spouse who is unemployed or a "self employed dealer"? even if they don't have kids, they slave away for 7.25 an hour for 40 hours a week, then come Friday/Saturday they hit the clubs and spend 90% of their earnings or go out and buy video games/other shit they don't need, only to complain the next day about how their wages aren't enough...

my opinion, if some of them who are complaining learn the difference between want vs need, they wouldn't be in the shitty low position they're currently in.

[C5_Ryder]

$15 an hour = higher prices

higher prices = lower sales

lower sales = lay offs

layoffs = 0 dollars an hour

[RRxtar]

Ummm why is that?
because you shouldn't bring a child into this world if you cannot afford to take care of it?

if you cant manage to sustain your own life on your low paying part time job, why is it ok to bring 3 lives into this world, and expect handouts from the government to support them?

[Hondaracer]

Agreed
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[FerrariEnzo]

Obama to raise min wage to $9 is good.. that should shut them uneducated fools... until the next strike and another single parent of 5 start complaining... :lawl:

[Geoc]

Franchises already run on a really thin margin, and the bulk of the cost next to franchise fees is labor. And if they jacked it up by +110%, are two outcomes:

1. Owner buys automation machines and fires all staff
2. Owner closes shop and fires all staff

[Gucci Mane]

this thread has made me hungry.

[Lomac]

this thread has made me hungry.

I actually went out to McDonalds a few minutes ago after seeing this thread again. :lol

[cho]

$15/hr working at McDonalds... :lawl:

How's this for a thought... Working at a fast food joint, unless you're management or higher, isn't a career. It's a job designed to get you work experience and to help pay for college. I know apprentices in trades who don't even make $15 an hour (and, yes, I'm aware they'll easily make twice that once they become a journeyman, but still...).



But then who's fault is that? If I decide to go into a specific field to study, the first thing I'll do is to look at the existing jobs and try to get a feel for what the job situation in four years will be. I'm not going to blindly get a degree in social economics, hoping that there will be a plethora of jobs available once I get out of school. And if I assume there will be, that fault will be on my shoulders, not the school's and not anyone else's.

i have my red seal and if i calculate how many hours i work to how much i make, im just at about 13.50 per hour :okay:

[StylinRed]

another problem is that in many places in the US, McDonalds et al. is the only "secure" job people can really land, Detroit for example, as we know, is bankrupt and industries are collecting dust

They're too poor to get up and move to go elsewhere, too uneducated even if they were to move to land a better job than mcdonalds, and even if they were to move there's not a lot of places they can go

so it comes as no surprise that they're hoping fast food chains will raise wages but that's not going to solve anything in the long term



i have my red seal and if i calculate how many hours i work to how much i make, im just at about 13.50 per hour :okay:

:suspicious:

[Stiig]

if they go on strike theres gonna be a looooooooooooooooot of hungry americans...

but for a lot of them that make a career out of fast food employment, how many of them, such as shaniqua davis, are young, have kids, have a spouse who is unemployed or a "self employed dealer"? even if they don't have kids, they slave away for 7.25 an hour for 40 hours a week, then come Friday/Saturday they hit the clubs and spend 90% of their earnings or go out and buy video games/other shit they don't need, only to complain the next day about how their wages aren't enough...

my opinion, if some of them who are complaining learn the difference between want vs need, they wouldn't be in the shitty low position they're currently in.


This would probably help to solve america's obesity problem

[xSin]

I think $15/hr is laughable in most areas of the United States, in NY its harder to say as I suspect the cost of living there is probably pretty high. (According to Craigslist it sure is!)

Life is about choices, some (Probably not all) of these people need to make better choices. McDonald's was never intended (when I was younger at least) to be a career choice and yet it seems like more and more frequently its becoming a job that people stay at.

At $7.25/hr on a full time 40 hour work week the gross wage is approx $580 every two weeks, Income tax rates in New York (according to a quick Google search) start at 2.9% so roughly $34/mo goes towards income tax so even if we round up drastically with imaginary other possible deductions they're able to bring home ballpark $1000/mo. Which isn't a lot, and after checking Apartments in New York on Craigslist, yeah that wage by itself is probably darn near impossible to live on.

[twitchyzero]

Life is about choices, some (Probably not all) of these people need to make better choices. McDonald's was never intended (when I was younger at least) to be a career choice and yet it seems like more and more frequently its becoming a job that people stay at.


unless you move onto a management position in McD, that's just a cop out.

Dog eat dog world but there's only so many external factors as reasons to stay at a minimum wage job.

[rsx]

They should have a "bankrupt" option for your life. You declare it in legal terms and you get put into a government labour camp. Food, shelter and you can build up credits to "buy" luxury items like a 12" black and white tv or smth.
You surrender your kids as well.

[PeanutButter]

Why not let the market speak for itself and not have a regulated minimum wage.

You aren't serious are you?