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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is What Would Happen If Fast-Food Workers Got Raises
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-02/this-is-what-would-happen-if-fast-food-workers-got-raisesFood-service workers are among the lowest paid in the country. Heres what Payscale.com data, based on about 3,000 employee surveys, show about how much workers are making at the countrys 10 biggest fast-food chains compared with workers in other fields. Not all the chains listed here are facing protests this weekthey are instead being highlighted for the size of their workforces:
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)profits and wages. To say that wages above $10.50 would make profits evaporate is disingenuous. CEOs earn almost 400 times the amount the average workers do. They can't convince me that they can't pay $15/hour and not still have money in their pocket.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)I got hammered the other day for suggesting that $15 is a worthwhile goal five years down the road, just not right now. For one thing, the big chains like McD's would be in a better position to pay it than mom 'n' pops.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)And yet the wage gap just keeps getting worse and worse. More and more people are living in poverty. No, nickles and dimes are no longer good enough. We need a living wage.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Even Obama's proposal of 9.00 is more than we've seen in a while. You're right, though: it's still not enough. What we need is a firm timetable: 9.00 now, 10.50 in two years, 12.00 in three, 15.00 in five.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)politicians(yes I realize that is an oxymoron) who will fight for a living wage now.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Mopar151
(9,965 posts)The amount of cost shifting from McJobs to anti-poverty programs supported by the taxpayers (who are increasingly wage earners themselves) is absolutely scandalous.
Good Gawd - what does it cost us to keep an eye on everybody that's on public releif, that could make it if they were paid a living wage? How much better could the caseworkers do, if a big bunch of their clients get a raise in their circumstances.
I hear New Zeland does this, I hear it works pretty good.......
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)How many McD's employees are on Medicaid? Or SNAP (food stamps)?
Mopar151
(9,965 posts)There's a whold universe of good people out there toiling for shit money - trashmen, tire busters, cashiers, landscapers, clerks and aides. Mitt Rommney called us "takers". It's more like "The Taken".
KrazyinKS
(291 posts)I heard on the radio about some research done at KU about the minimal price hikes that would occur if the workers got a raise. I was stunned. We are arguing over this? I do estate sales and it stuns me. They get pissed, over a quarter!
Response to KamaAina (Original post)
Adam051188 This message was self-deleted by its author.
hunter
(38,264 posts)With more money maybe they eat a little better and get a bad tooth looked at by a dentist.
I'm a Luddite. In my utopia few people owns cars, people work thirty hours a week with a single six week vacation every year, multiple shorter vacations, and year long vacations every decade or so. Most people in my utopia are artists of some sort, artists with "day jobs." Some people are artists in their work too, but most people define themselves by their art, not by their day job. When someone says "I'm a painter" they mean like Bob Ross, not like someone who paints houses, though painting houses may be their art too.
In my utopia the "Economic Productivity" as we now measure it is universally seen as a bad thing.
A functional society provides everyone good food, shelters everyone in a safe comfortable place, educates everyone, provides adequate medical care and justice for all. The USA is not a functional society.
hunter
(38,264 posts)They'd spend this money in the community.
Instead the fruits of their labor are siphoned off as corporate profits for wealthy people to play with on Wall Street and other international casinos.
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)customer: How much for a large coffee
me: three dollars
customer: THREE DOLLARS?
me: It's specialty coffee roasted here in Long Beach
customer: ridiculous [walks out]
I pay my top baristas $15/hr, and serve extremely craft coffee... people complain about the price nearly every day. Meanwhile, I haven't had a paycheck in over seven months... all the money goes into the coffee and employees. The coffee shop is in a very affluent area. Most people across America will NOT pay for better quality product or service. Sad fact but true.
Mopar151
(9,965 posts)A lot of the wanna-be-rich crowd are terrible chiselers. Your prices are not that much higher than Dunkie's on the East Coast.
DonCoquixote
(13,615 posts)especially as many of the wanna be rich want to beat up on anyone else.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)People talk a big game about supporting US workers, right until it comes time to actually do it and spend a few dollars extra.