Fast-Food Restaurant Raises Starting Salary to $15 per Hour

[liberal N proud]

Amidst nationwide protests about the minimum wage at fast-food eateries, one burger joint in the Detroit metropolitan area has decided to raise its starting salary to $15. According to the Daily Beast, Moo Cluck Moo, a Michigan eatery, had already been paying employees an unheard of $12 per hour. Fast-food workers around the country have been holding protests to encourage companies and restaurant owners to raise staff pay. Moo Cluck Moo owners Brian Parker and Harry Moorhouse chose to give their staff a pay bump. The bump to the so-called "living wage" has many critics (predominantly fast-food execs and restaurants owners), but Parker and Moorhouse have found that higher pay leads to much better service and lower employee turnover. Plus the business owners truly believe that their staff deserves every penny. "It's not an easy job to do," explained Parker.

http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/fast-food-restaurant-15-hour-starting-salary

Take that McDonnald's

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

[gopiscrap]

2. Excellent wish I was in Michigan to support them

[mopinko]

3. that's how you revitalize detroit.

[mountain grammy]

9. That's how you revitalize America!

[G_j]

14. +1000

[Volaris]

22. Ain't THAT the fucking truth.

[libdem4life]

4. People work better and stay longer when paid a living wage. Who knew?

Recall a pizza place that did this and included it in their signage...and their traffic (and reputation) increased.

Now, if Target (or a significant equivalent) would step up, we could say "Take that, WalMart."

[safeinOhio]

5. Great read.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130911/BLOG006/130919957/moo-cluck-moos-15-an-hour-story-starts-with-a-lesson-in-minimum-wage

Employees at Moo Cluck Moo make $15 an hour or about $31,000 a year. In comparison, a rookie Detroit police officer starts off at about $30,000. A newbie teacher in Detroit starts around $38,000. A cub reporter at a daily newspaper averages about $28,000 a year.

The impact of their higher-than-average salaries is not lost on Moo Cluck Moo's employees.

Lindsay Senia, 23, says she is able to pay her tuition out-of-pocket instead of taking out student loans.
Jennifer Aguilar is able to send her son to Boy Scout camp and can afford to send her daughter to cheerleading camp.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. I hope their business grows and they all make a killing.

[NBachers]

7. I'd sure love to stop in there.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. rec!

[mountain grammy]

10. If I'm ever anywhere near Detroit, this place is on my list.

[etherealtruth]

11. thanks for posting

NPR also did a great story:


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=222099775&ft=3,1051,1052
"Now this comes at a time when fast food workers have been staging short strikes across the country to protest wages many consider too low. Now we want to talk with the owner of one casual dining chain who's moving in the opposite direction. The owners of Moo Cluck Moo in Dearborn Heights, Michigan are currently paying their workers $12 an hour and they want to raise that number to $15 an hour. That would be more than double the current federal minimum wage. We wanted to talk more about this so we've called on the owner Brian Parker and he's with us now. Thank you so much for joining us."

[jmowreader]

31. Casual dining CHAIN?

There's only one of them.

[stonecutter357]

12. K&R

[liberal_at_heart]

13. K&R. It can be done.

[90-percent]

15. A company this generous to it's employee's

Should enjoy employees giving the best they have to give their nice employer during their work days! If they are taking care of you, with human's innate desire for fairness, we should reciprocate.

A generous employer should end up with a work force full of generous employee's. Happy employee's should make for a more prosperous business.

-90% Jimmy

[BelgianMadCow]

19. I've been wondering at which point in time

we will all step away from the "I want the cheapest"-brink, and start supporting businesses that "pay back" in honest work, environmental consiousness and quality goods or services.

Been thinking of starting a business "made here, under good conditions" and I wonder how many people would be prepared to pay how much extra.

[Heather MC]

16. Posting on FB for my Michigan Friends!!! Definately need to support a place that treat their

employees with dignity and respect.

imagine waking up and discovering you go a raise Nice

[tokenlib]

17. A little more expensive,but a lot BETTER food..hope they expand...

Looking at the menu on their website..makes me hungry. And they really care about where the food comes from. WOW!! The owners just really care period....

[BelgianMadCow]

18. startLing salary

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

20. I saw this story on MSN's business section the other day

The user comments after the article were mostly right-wingers and libertarians hoping and praying it would fail and the place would go out of business and being down right angry that someone would treat their workers well as if they were doing it to "show up" or "shame" everyone else. It was really fucking sad to realize how much people hate their fellow man.

[redstatebluegirl]

21. What??? They are not going broke???

How can that be???? Sarcasm.... Blows corporate BS out of the water!!!

[James48]

23. I live 50 miles away

but will road trip there sometime in the next month just to try it and to support them.

Best of luck!

[PoliticAverse]

24. So how do their burger prices compare to fast food places like McD's that don't pay as well? n/t

[tblue37]

25. Their burgers run $3 to $5, and their fried

chicken sandwiches are $6. A little bit higher than McDonald's, but not much--and probably better food, as well.

[SoCalDem]

35. Hamburger & fries at a BOWLING alley here is $8.95

Hamburger & fries at DENNYs is pushing $9.00

Paying employees decently and telling patrons, means they are no longer scrounging for tips too..and the kitchen staff & bus-people no longer have to rely on the (sometimes reluctant) generosity of servers to share with them..

It also means that workers will not call in as often if something fun comes along that they want to do

Prhpas people who may not need to tip now, mat just order dessert or coffee after dinner..

[ybbor]

26. I went there last Wednesday

Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I live about 25 miles away, but wanted to check it out and give them my business. It's take-out only and the food was excellent! Not very expensive at all.

Check out their website:

http://www.moocluckmoo.com/#!food/cfbl

[liberal N proud]

40. Good to hear!

[FreeJoe]

27. I wonder

I certainly love the idea and hope that they are successful. I know that it would be a powerful motivator to get me to shop there.

On the other hand, I wonder how much of an advantage they get by being fairly unique. If one fast food company in my area did this, I would seek them out and give them a higher percentage of my business. If they all did, I wouldn't increase my consumption of fast food in total, so none would see a gain in business from me.

I also imagine that they have a huge staffing advantage. The best fast food workers are likely to want to work for them and keep working for them. Again, if every fast food place did this, they would see a smaller improvement in worker quality. They would attract quality workers from other industries and their workers, having more income, would have fewer personal problems. They could not, however, all attract the best workers if they all paid at this rate.

So, great idea. I hope that they are successful. I wouldn't assume that their results would be replicated if we raised the minimum wage to $15/hr.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

28. It can't be done!!!!

Neo-Liberal Underground posters told me it couldn't be done!

[Mr.Bill]

29. In n Out Burger starts it's employees at 10.50 hr.

One of the reasons they can do that is they are not franchises, they are a privately held corporation that own all the stores. There is no franchise owner paying a huge franchise fee to the Franchisor every month. Franchises have their advantages, I suppose, but they are a bad business model when it comes to what's left to pay the employees.

[reformist2]

30. This is good, but we should not think of higher pay as something the owners "allow" us to have!

It's a matter of justice, not charity.

[niyad]

32. k and r--would support them if I were in the area.

[ReRe]

33. K&R!

[littlewolf]

34. excellent I wonder how many of the employees

are full time verses Part time.
hope everyone that wants to be f/t gets to be.

[B Calm]

36. If I lived nearby, I would eat there!

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Awesome.

K&R

[olegramps]

38. This reminds me of Henry Ford.

He realized that it didn't make any sense that his workers could not afford what the built. When he raised his workers wages, actually doubling them, he was the pirria of the wealthy who wailed that his policies would bring them to financial ruin.

[liberal N proud]

39. Exactly