Fast Food Workers In Seven Cities Strike, Saying They Can't Survive On $7.25 Per Hour

[Pepper]

:

Fast Food Workers In Seven Cities Strike, Saying They Can't Survive On $7.25 Per Hour

[Pepper]

In my opinion, fast food workers of all ages, genders, creeds, colors, and shapes should be paid with dignity. They deserve to make more, in fact, the minimum should probably be around $30 plus or minus an hour. The added benefit is that this bold action a wage with dignity would greatly reduce the number of anyone desiring to attend college to better him or herself, thus greatly reducing state expenditures on these so called institutions of higher learning.

 

In fact, if fast food workers did not have to work at all it could reduce traffic and thus congestion and pollution on nation's roadways. In fact, merely keeping fast food workers off the road would greatly reduce injuries and possibly fatalities thus allowing us to keep Obamacare.

[SrWoodchuck]

In my opinion, fast food workers of all ages, genders, creeds, colors, and shapes should be paid with dignity. They deserve to make more, in fact, the minimum should probably be around $30 plus or minus an hour. The added benefit is that this bold action a wage with dignity would greatly reduce the number of anyone desiring to attend college to better him or herself, thus greatly reducing state expenditures on these so called institutions of higher learning.

 

In fact, if fast food workers did not have to work at all it could reduce traffic and thus congestion and pollution on nation's roadways. In fact, merely keeping fast food workers off the road would greatly reduce injuries and possibly fatalities thus allowing us to keep Obamacare.

 

@Pepper!

 

...................and $35 BigMac's & $12 Small Fries w/that.....would reduce the number of unhealthy Americans...........

[Pepper]

Excellent point, @SrWoodchuck. Speaking of macs, we should go ahead and complete our post doctorates in macro economics or macramé‎, I know it starts with mac something.

[SrWoodchuck]

Excellent point, @SrWoodchuck. Speaking of macs, we should go ahead and complete our post doctorates in macro economics or macramé‎, I know it starts with mac something.

 

Maybe fast food work experience can be used for college credits? They can award a de-ploma for it and......they could get fries w/that!

[Pepper]

I think I will pursue macramé, but you are clearly on a post doc course in macro economics, @SrWoodchuck

[SrWoodchuck]

I think I will pursue macramé, but you are clearly on a post doc course in macro economics, @SrWoodchuck

 

That's why I was Vapidictorian of my burger class. One of my first jobs was "opener" at McD's. I got there @ 4:30AM, put the owners car [he was drunk & passed out in the front seat, with the bumper on the back door] in reverse...parked him under a tree in the back, pulled his keys & called his son [my manager] to come get him. Then.....I peeled and cut taters for the day...blanched them & hung them in the rack. Changed the fry oil & started it heating, turned the grills on low & stocked the grill area [fridge] with meat & condiments. Swept & mopped every inch of the interior floor....and swept the lot. Polished chrome & windows....and at quitting time [11:30AM] had my full free meal. Pay = $ 2.25@hr.

[Pepper]

@SrWoodchuck

Bet you appreciated each check or cash and slept soundly each night.

[SrWoodchuck]

@SrWoodchuck

Bet you appreciated each check or cash and slept soundly each night.

 

@Pepper! Between that & 2-a-day football practice, I slept a lot when I was off.....and gas was under 25cents a gallon!

[SrWoodchuck]

McDonalds Math, Or, Latest Lib Talking Points Fail

 

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2013/07/mcdonalds-math-or-latest-lib-talking-points-fail.html

 

The Huffington Post popularizes some McDonalds level math:

 

Doubling McDonald's Salaries Would Cause Your Big Mac To Cost Just 68¢ More: Study

 

McDonald's can afford to pay its workers a living wage without sacrificing any of its low menu prices, according to a new study provided to The Huffington Post by a University of Kansas researcher.

 

Doubling the salaries and benefits of all McDonald's employees -- from workers earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to CEO Donald Thompson, whose 2012 compensation totaled $8.75 million -- would cause the price of a Big Mac to increase just 68 cents, from $3.99 to $4.67, University of Kansas research assistant Arnobio Morelix told HuffPost. In addition, every item on the Dollar Menu would go up by 17 cents.

 

And how did he come to this conclusion?

 

Morelix looked at McDonald's 2012 annual report and discovered that only 17.1 percent of the fast-food giant's revenue goes toward salaries and benefits. In other words, for every dollar McDonald's earns, a little more than 17 cents goes toward the income and benefits of its more than 500,000 U.S. employees.

 

Thus, if McDonald's executives wanted to double the salaries of all of its employees and keep profits and other expenses the same, it would need to increase prices by just 17 cents per dollar, according to Morelix.

 

I don't suppose we can expect Huffers to actually read the annual report in question, but here it is. And what do we glean?

McDonalds reports a net revenue from both the stores it operates and its franchise fees. The McDonalds franchisors are separate businesses which pay a fee to McDonalds Corp and are responsible for their own payroll, as is discussed in the annual report (p. 13).

 

So Morelix has not included the payroll figure for the franchisees in this calculation. Is that a big problem? Huge, actually. From page 11 we see that their are 6,598 outlets run directly by McDonalds Corp and 27,882 franchised outlets. Sales from franchised outlets totalled $69,687 (in million) in 2012, which far exceeds the $18,602 (mm) revenue figure for company-operated stores. That $69 billion figure is condensed down to $8.9 billion of franchise revenue on the Consolidated Statement of Income (The rest of the $27,567 MM in total revenue comes from sales at McDonalds run stores).

 

Which leaves us where? Doubling all the salaries at McDonalds headquarters and in their 6,598 stores would be offset by a total revenue increase of 17%, but the franchisees won't be agreeing to pay more in franchise fees and won't be raising their payroll (the size of which we haven't found in this report) in the 27,882 stores they operate.

If I were inclined to press down this road I would compare the $18 billion of revenue from McDonalds run stores with the payroll figure of $4.7 billion; that ratio is 26%. By that calculation, McDonalds would need to raise all its prices by 26% at its own stores in order to double all of its direct payroll expenses, which presumably includes a lot of non-hamburger flippers at headquarters. Hey, 17%, 26%, de nada - that is only a 50% error and it's not my money anyway!