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

a reply to: TDawgRex

This is what things cost in canada already.

This graphic is actually BS because it's calculations are based on keeping the same profit margin as they make now.

The truth is that corporations will have to accept a loss of net profit when they provide a livable wage to their employees.

A little know secret is that they became so wealthy by exploiting their employee.

-Tenth

a reply to: TDawgRex


The real issue here isn't wages. The real issue is the devaluation of the dollar.

Think about what $10 used to buy...a full paper bag of groceries, a tank of gas, date night at the movies.

Now what does it get you?

The dollar has been devalued as it's fiat money now. Middle class jobs are dead or dying or being shipped overseas due to demand for ever cheaper products (which the influx of devalues the worth of our dollars even more.)

I wonder if the place doing the research takes into consideration that the meals would be out of the price range of a lot of their customers. There sales will go down. These places would all collapse and there wouldn't be any jobs at all for college graduates.

If the price jumped up that much, I would never go to those places. I like them once in a while but I am not addicted anymore. Many people will quit going.

MY husbands is a Carpenter, I clean houses, god bless the blue collar workers, this nation became great from their hard work, my father and grandfather were blacksmiths, back then you could live well on blue collar wages.

God help us

The multinational corporations that have no allegiance to any country want to reap the benefits of cheap global labor backed by a global military force and want everyone else to pay for it

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.

a reply to: TDawgRex

That's the prevailing argument against a fair living wage? How much it will cost to get fatter and fatter?

"Oh, I'd like to see people afford rent for working their asses off but I wouldn't be able to poison my family and fill out my Snuggie if they could... wah!"

My word. Priorities are also supposed to encroach upon our moral compasses, not just for stuffing our faces.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: TDawgRex

This is what things cost in canada already.

This graphic is actually BS because it's calculations are based on keeping the same profit margin as they make now.

The truth is that corporations will have to accept a loss of bet profit when they provide a livable wage to their employees.

A little know secret is that they became so wealthy by exploiting their employee.

-Tenth

What exactly is an acceptable profit in your eyes?
And I mean what percent of return on investment. Don't say that they made billions.
I invest $100 dollars and get back $110. That's 10%
Is that to much or not enough? I'm just curious.

a reply to: theMediator

That's really the key issue...how much profit is enough?

And should corporations that make money off of a society of consumers place the greed of share holders above the overall benefit of that society? Shouldn't there be a symbiotic relationship between the two? And also between the execs/shareholders and the lower tier employees. It seems to me what exists now is more parasitic.

The OP's argument is standard right-wing think tank BS.

The minimum wage in 1978 was 2.65. Adjusted for inflation that is nearly $10 today. Yet the cost of a McD's burger in 1978 was 30 cents. The minimum wage in 1978 didn't cause massive price spikes in their menu prices.

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.

a reply to: theMediator

Ive said it before that we should give all citizens the same power over our government that the banking and corporate lobbyists have.

Are we can go back to being a constitutional republic and boot out the lobbyists that are destroying our country.

originally posted by: kelbtalfenek
a reply to: TDawgRex


The real issue here isn't wages. The real issue is the devaluation of the dollar.

Think about what $10 used to buy...a full paper bag of groceries, a tank of gas, date night at the movies.

Now what does it get you?

The dollar has been devalued as it's fiat money now. Middle class jobs are dead or dying or being shipped overseas due to demand for ever cheaper products (which the influx of devalues the worth of our dollars even more.)

Exactly. What is badly needed is not a raise in wage, but to make the money we have worth more.

I see a lot of people poo pooing conservative view points on this...

I see a lot of people poo pooing Capitalism and advocating we put a cap on what people at the top can make....

yet you want to increase what employees make, you dont want a cap on minimum wage but you want a cap the employers, do you even see this hypocrisy.....

Lots of opinions but no one really debating the FACTS that this increase is bad for family owned businesses and in the end BAD for inflation and the economy as a whole..........

Its great you dont like wages, but at least when you want to attack people who dont agree with the wage hike, provide some statistics that support it ......

Good intentions are great but they dont do anything.......

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.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

The point is these jobs represent the bottom line of our economy.

This business should be going to small mom and pop shops that could be making a smaller but more reasonable profit increasing the overall health of the local economy.

Sorry Tdawg but your distracting people from the real issue here and the real issue is that big business is destroying local economies.

So when a small mom and pop business, like Mcdonalds, Wendy's, KFC and a ton of others used to be, gets too large then we cry foul and say that their achievement of the "American Dream" is ruining other small businesses? Seems a little Ironic and redundant. Even Walmart started somewhere, at that point does the blame not lie also on those people who frequent the big businesses? I will go out of my way to pay a little more at a mom and pop shop for better service and better quality, but a lot of people don't have the same mindset. It's not all the fault of "Big Business" if there was no demand then there would be no need for them.

A sustainable middle class is needed for long-term stability. Large businesses and multi-national corporations cannot keep cutting themselves off at the knees by paying low wages. Eventually no one will be able to afford the products they produce.

If you pay people so low of a wage, they will no longer be able to afford the product that they themselves are making.

Would the rich rather pay higher taxes to the government in order for that money to be turned around and given to their employees in the form of a welfare check? It sure seems that way. It would appear that these corporations have found that they can make even more profit by paying the difference in salary/wage in taxes and "double dip" so to speak.

By having government subsided hand-outs fueled by corporate tax, the rich continue to rake int he profits, while artificially maintaining stability. This system can only last so long, however.

What needs to happen is wages need to be adjusted, and prices need to be fixed. Raise people's pay, but freeze the prices on commodities. It's not a popular option because this spells "wealth redistribution". Sorry, but in order for mankind to prosper and flourish, people's basic needs must be met.

I'm not suggesting that those who work hard should not be rewarded -- but when is enough, enough? There are always going to be people that mop your floor, drive your taxi's and bury the dead. These menial jobs have to be done. People doing these jobs, however, do deserve a wage that can provide a few basic things:

1. Food
2. Shelter
3. Basic medical care

If the people working those jobs desire more out of life, they ought to work themselves up into higher paying positions. As it stands right now, upward mobility is very hard if one is born into the lowest economic classes in America. When a single mother is working 3 jobs to make ends meet, she barley has time to sit with her child and help with home work and instill the value of a good education. "Getting by" is the No. 1 priority of the day, and anything weeks, months or years out is secondary.

I think those at the top could lighten their ballast a little bit in order for everyone else to float a little higher. I doubt those people would even feel the pinch, but who knows -- doing so could help the next undiscovered Einstein in a ghetto get an education and change the world.

We need to stop the cycle of greed and squash out the "I got mine so F-you!" selfish mentality. No wonder aliens haven't shown up and said "hi". We're an embarrassment to intelligent sentient beings in the universe.

A company makes $5 billion a year, on the backs of the poor while there labor force draws government assistance. If the company made $4 billion a year and put the other billion into wages, maybe there employees can get off of welfare. thus saving tax payers a ton of money and the rich still get richer.

The government allowed us to become a service related economy to enable globalization, so the government should make this industry pay liveable wages, with full time and benefits.

In November I'm voting for a minimum wage increase in my state.

originally posted by: kelbtalfenek
a reply to: TDawgRex


The real issue here isn't wages. The real issue is the devaluation of the dollar.

Think about what $10 used to buy...a full paper bag of groceries, a tank of gas, date night at the movies.

Now what does it get you?

The dollar has been devalued as it's fiat money now. Middle class jobs are dead or dying or being shipped overseas due to demand for ever cheaper products (which the influx of devalues the worth of our dollars even more.)

This isn't 1960, it's 2014. People are making more than .75 an hour now too.

If someone wants to get a middle class job then they need to be smart and get one is a field that is not and cannot be outsourced, such as point of service healthcare or insurance sales there are many many others as well. Only thing is you have to learn the skills associated with those jobs, and most of the jobs are fairly hard work which a lot of people don't want to do.

a reply to: TDawgRex

Or, they could just, you know, profit just a bit less and charge the same amount, which would make far more sense.

Here's the thing. No one should care a damn that these companies might take a slap in their pocket, well, no one who is not directly profiting from their foolish wage policies anyway. But everyone ought to be pissed that jobs are being offered which do not pay a living wage, and everyone should be angry that pay rises given by such stonkingly rich companies, ought to come out of customers pockets.

It's time these companies accepted that they are there to serve, not to be served.

originally posted by: seeker1963

Like I said earlier, raising minimum wage is nothing but a tool to buy votes! If they truly cared about people being able to make a living, THEY would do something to bring manufacturing jobs back to this country!

Here here. Me and you are on the same page.
Raising minimum wage will only benefit the Big Corporations in bed with our government and kill off more competition from the small business owner.

I would vote for any politician running on killing the trade pacts, putting an end to lobbying and putting tariffs on imports. If you have a company in China, you can sell your 150 dollar ipods to the Chinese making a dollar a day or to Americans at increased costs