Here’s How the Price of Your Favorite Fast Food Would Change With a $15 Minimum Wage

originally posted by: Turq1
How is it that food prices would "have" to increase when fast food companies are making huge profits? Where is this apparent forced increase on food prices coming from. Would probably be more like the businessmen craving their financial status quo remain the same. Then making the consumer take the hit rather than themselves, in this scenario.

Just look at trends over the decades as far as wealth allocation.

Yes, we can take those huge profits and raise wages that way! Not really though, won't work.

Mcdonalds 2013 profits. 4.9 billion. Let's take every cent and divert it to wages shall we?

For 1.7 million employees that's $2,941 a year. $56.56 a week. Based on working 30 hrs about a dollar eighty eight an hour. Not a bad raise, but not enough in current economic conditions to lift them out of poverty.

As an unintended consequence, the shareholders recieve nothing. Most likely causing a massive sell off of stock and the company becoming financially wrecked leading to huge layoffs. Eh.

Didn't a lot of fast food place based in location that have a high minimum wage start using more automation?

I know Mc'D's is one of the ones using auto tellers just haven't seen a lot of them. If the cost of labor matches or is near the cost of R&D for full out automation they'll just get rid of the job by switching to automation. Sure they'll still need a few people to watch over the machines but it would be a lot less then they have now, and once one figures it out it wouldn't be long till they're all doing it.

a reply to: MystikMushroom
The game is rigged to support the corporation, these commodities are all subsidized, so yet another way the corp profits from a rigged system.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Stormdancer777

I'm a carpenter and let me tell you that a lot of carpenters are squeezing by. I have to go get a factory job for the next two weeks until our next commercial job starts at the end of the month.

I won't make crap but it'll get me food and a cell phone bill the rest comes out of my savings and they will let me work overtime.

Been through those layoffs many times, yes and he makes pretty good wages after all these years, but still we live paycheck to paycheck, the cost of living is killing everyone, the food prices are astronomical,

Actually it can be cheaper to eat out, even if they raise the cost of a burger.

Good luck

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

I'm conservative on some issues, not all, commonsensical on others,




This situation we are finding ourselves in is unacceptable, it is going to crash and burn.

originally posted by: LDragonFire
a reply to: MystikMushroom
The game is rigged to support the corporation, these commodities are all subsidized, so yet another way the corp profits from a rigged system.

I love corporate profits, that's what keeps my mutual funds hopping

People should, I think, look more at facts and examples, rather than shills and fearmongering. I have lived in places with higher minimum wages....not state enforced, but defacto, such as Atlanta or phoenix, where no job pays 7.40/hour, and even Wendy's starts people at 10/hour. And comparing that to places like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi where jobs DO pay the actual minimum, the standard of living is demonstrably higher in places with a higher minimum wage, and dismal in places with lower.

Carrying on, there are certain states and cities which have much higher base pay, and statistically, the state with the highest minimum wage (Washington) is also the state that has had the most growth in business, and among the highest achievements in education, standards of living, and other social markers. This also goes for the city with the highest minimum wage (san fran, I believe). There is less dying off of mom and pop shops in these two areas then there are where I currently reside, in baton rouge, or the last place I lived, new Orleans, where the only places people can afford to shop on their low state enforced minimum wage.

Another point is that in all the places that I worked where minimum wage was higher.....so were my above minimum wages! Much more so. As a psychiatric tech in Arizona the pay averaged about 50k a year.....yes, that was with a little overtime, but that only meant four shifts a week at 12 hours a shift. Not bad. But then move south here to La, and the same job in a true minimum wage environment was.....about 9/hour.....dismal. Lower minimum wage (below subsistence level) makes everyone so desperate that people are all willing to work for less, and it drives down the costs for all labor across the board.

Lastly, as another pointed out, the minimum wage has stagnated while inflation has escalated. If minimum wage had increased at the same rate as inflation since 1970, the current minimum wage would be close to 18/hour. So what many of you are advocating on here is that the people slaving away at the bottom should have a steadily declining standard of living.....this is not only inhumane, its sociopathic in its lack of empathy or understanding. The fact of the matter is, WORK is WORK, and its ludicrous for people to sit and think they can judge how hard a, say waitress, works (massively difficult job), and decide its value to earn is much less than say a nurse (massively easy job....I've done both). A person is contributing 8 hours of being on their feet, doing whatever another person tells them to, and often dealing with demeaning and strenuous or stressful situation. And some can arrogantly point out what they decide is too much profit for those people to make, but at the same time say that there should be no limit to the income of someone sitting in an office and calling the shots?? Here's a secret some people don't seem to get.....EVERYBODIES TIME IS VALUABLE! If those at the top didn't institute such draconian exploitation of those on the bottom....perhaps the "bottom feeders" would have more time and money to improve themselves.

a reply to: TDawgRex

What we need to do is pre-determine what everyone should make.

From the lowest of workers to the highest of CEO's.

After that, we can then determine (based on each individuals salary) where they live, what they can purchase, what they can eat and drink and smoke.

It takes all the guesswork out of it.

No worries, no freedoms, no responsibilities, no incentive to do better, no pride.

Just do your damned job, shut your mouth, take what the government determines you get, and deal with it!

LOL another goofy thread throwing (this time) singularly the most ridiculous reason yet not to do it...

The Price of a Mc Crap meal will go up

OM Effing G, do you mean that the cost for eating like a horrific Walrus will be higher

God forbid I turn on the TV or Interwebs and am a little less bombarded by funny pictures of my fellow Americans looking like the biggest retards on the planet, like giant Sumo wrestlers who can't fight... heaven forbid we have a few less heart attack victims next year or some one can't afford that third meal for lunch...

and guess what?

those slightly higher prices would still be comfortably LESS than the minimum wage if it was raised... EXCEPT some of us would have a Choice on if to use that 15.00 to buy a freaking load of chicken derp nuggets OR to buy something of value that would have NO REASON to have gone up in price unlike the BIG MAC

Maybe, just maybe thee would be a few less fast food places and actual restaurants where people are tipped like actual human beings would start filling the gaps again and to make back the losses, businesses whose owners actually DO SOMETHING, need to learn to market and provide decent service, maybe our kids as a result wouldn't have quite so many jobs that train them in NOTHING that presents a real world skill as their first job experience again.... that would be awful lol

cheap disgusting Pigs.... owning a Mc Donalds doesn't constitute having done much with your life or for humanity, expect to make less and stop taking it out on the public, if you can't sell 2 extra orders of MC Crap to fill the 6.00 in the course of an hr by attracting one more fat lazy disgusting slob who eats your refuse your a failure as a human being and a worthless piece of feces anyway, it also means your business is a FAILURE so pack it up and move in SOMETHING and SOMEONE who wants to work for a living will fill the gap

BOOOO BOOOOO on this thread, BOOO on people who want to make money for doing nothing and BOOOO on a scoiety that condones letting our people live in poverty rather than make an effort

a reply to: caterpillage

Is that number world wide or just in the US. because that does make a difference. And not every franchise makes the same as others

You can't use a blanket market strat when markets vary from place to place. That's bad economics and horrible financial strategy for everyone involved including the employees

So I see a lot of the arguments here saying. "So what if it costs more to eat crap". Admittedly that's a weak argument in favor of increased wages

You DO know that massive chains like this buy huge amounts of goods to run their businesses don't you?

So you DO know that them having to compensate will affect other markets don't you?

I shouldn't be surprised that people for this are so short sighted that they can't see the impact further along then just the cumulative waistlines of the people eating there...

The thing is.....minimum wage is not "wealth redistribution" as some seem to think. Its government protections from abject exploitation. You have to realize that almost everything that was fought and gained by the labor movement during the civil rights era has been completely eradicated, and we are only a few short steps from being back in the "owner class vs serfs" paradigm that we came from. These companies that you think would give people what they are worth if self regulated are the same exact ones running sweat shops and child labor in third world countries, and they would do the absolute same here given the chance....a chance that they are strongly working to bring about through lobbying and buying legislation. Amazingly, they are truly skilled at making the middle and lower class vote against their own best interest, and will be dancing a jig on the day they convince us to vote our way right back into wage slavery.

We have already been convinced by big business to completely dismantle any checks on their power to legislate, bribe, bypass our labor by off shoring, rake in subsidies from our taxes, and bail themselves out with our money. The power disparity is overwhelmingly obvious, and yet people still willingly stand behind them while all our lives decline in stability and living standards, and we blame the poor and immigrants, as if they have the power to buy congress, raise taxes, demand wars for profit, vote in their own pay increases, and bypass tax codes.

Understand this. Everything that has been happening, declining lifestyle, financial shenanigans and collapse, costly wars, increasing costs of energy, gas, water, healthcare, education.....all this is a product of legislations that benefitted certain groups of people....people who paid a lot of money to get these legislations passed. You know who HASNT gotten any legislations passed that affect your quality of life??? The POOR. The IMMIGRANTS. They have NO power. Congressmen listen to them the same way they listen when you call or write a letter. Stop blaming people who have absolutely no power to impact our country and lifestyle, and start blaming those who directly take actions to skew money away from you and to them.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask


One would like to be able to pay the rent to harbor our fat a$$es, lol

a reply to: jacobe001

It is pretty clear who is destroying this country and it is not the minimum wage strikers.

Here is Alan Grayson on the TPP

Like Pandora's Box, TPP contains unknown horrors -- it's being negotiated with an unprecedented degree of secrecy. Even the Bush-era trade agreements were negotiated with a greater degree of transparency. TPP negotiating texts are being treated as classified documents, with access denied to the media, civil society groups, academics, and the general public. Members of Congress were restricted from seeing the TPP texts until Rep. Alan Grayson launched a petition campaign demanding access.

The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) finally allowed him to see one TPP document -- on the condition that no staff would be present, he take no notes, use no recording device, and would be sworn to secrecy on whatever he saw. According to Representative Grayson, "having seen what I've seen, I would characterize this as a gross abrogation of American sovereignty. And I would further characterize it as a punch in the face to the middle class of America. I think that's fair to say from what I've seen so far. But I'm not allowed to tell you why!"

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
The real problem with inflated prices is not the cost of worker compensation, which has plummeted, but inflation and executive compensation. CEOs have seen a nearly 1000% increase in their salaries.

CEO Pay Has Increased By 937 Percent Since 1978

CEO Pay Has Increased By 937 Percent Since 1978

These massive increases are fattening CEOs' wallets while those of average Americans look ever leaner. Of all income groups, it's arguably minimum-wage earners who have suffered the most. The federal minimum wage has declined sharply since the 1960s when adjusted for inflation. If it had kept pace with increases in workplace productivity, the federal minimum wage would be $21.72 an hour -- triple what it is today.

One thing those massive executive profits can afford them is think-tank BS about how paying workers a livable wage is just bad.

That's exactly right. It is some seriously NLBS to blame a price hike on strictly low tier employee wages. It's astonishing how thoroughly the American middle class - which has been decimated by corporate greed - buys into this class warfare manipulation.

a reply to: kosmicjack

I too would like to know what it profits a nation to make it financially weaker, how does that work exactly?

Mission accomplished?

Record 92,269,000 Not in Labor Force; Participation Rate Matches 36-Year Low

www.cnsnews.com...

originally posted by: caterpillage


As an unintended consequence, the shareholders recieve nothing. Most likely causing a massive sell off of stock and the company becoming financially wrecked leading to huge layoffs. Eh.

The shareholders, hedge fund managers and Wall Street Bankers are a good portion of what is wrong with our country.
Wall Street used to be a means to propel and grow the economy, now it is only a money making machine, propped up by bailouts, quantitative easing and Large Corporations buying and selling to each other, disconnected from Mainstreet.

It could also be said that a lot the wealth is from emerging economies in this Globalist Utopia.
Hoorah for them. Why do we even bother having borders, governments and a military if the citizens get no benefit from this arrangement with their tax dollars?

originally posted by: beezzer


Just do your damned job, shut your mouth, take what the Corporate bought government determines you get, and deal with it!

Fixed it for you

originally posted by: caterpillage

As an unintended consequence, the shareholders recieve nothing. Most likely causing a massive sell off of stock and the company becoming financially wrecked leading to huge layoffs. Eh.

That logic is based on the same "trickle-down" BS that has been spewed out of the 1% and Washington DC for thirty plus years. Look at what that failed economic strategy has done to the middle class.....if you can find it...