"Thousands" of min-wage McDonalds workers to walk off jobs to demand better pay

[Destiny]

If you are fine paying higher pricess for Happy Meals = then help support their raises by paying these higher prices...

Back in the days Happy Meals were $1.99 and you get a cool toy... now a days you just get a sticker or 3 crayons...:'(

 

[KlokWyze]

LOL!

demanding $15/hr from their $7.25/hr or whatever it is. so they believe they should get double the wage for doing the same exact job they've happily been doing for a while.

retarded.

if they want a higher paying job, get a job that 14 year olds can't do.

EDIT:

this just screams the whole "entitlement" attitude that people have now a days.

TBH, working the cash register @ a busy McD's looks like complete hell. I'm a system admin and think my job would be much less challenging in comparison.

Also, don't care about higher prices here. The food is garbage and waaaaay overpriced as it is.

 

[Kaido]

if they want a higher paying job, get a job that 14 year olds can't do.

Part of the problem is that not everyone is intellectually gifted enough to get a job in something other than fast-food or retail work. I doubt there are many people who want to work at Walmart or McDonalds as adults, but people have bills to pay and you have to get by. I've had to work at Pizza Hut & Staples to make ends meet in the past. It stunk and it definitely motivated me to go to college, but not everyone gets that opportunity or has the ability to do that.

So this raises the question, should people who don't have the ability to do better than a minimum-wage job be stuck in poverty? To me, this epitomizes the "Occupy Wallstreet" movement, i.e. the 1% vs. the 99%. I have zero problem with people making millions or billions of dollars in our capitalistic society; if you want to get out there, work 100 hours a week, and make bank, then more power to you. But if you're doing it on the heads of what equates to modern-day slaves, then shame on you. $4,200 an hour vs. $8.25 an hour for the president of the company vs. the guy who actually does the work is ridiculous. Pardon the (extreme) language, but Louis CK pretty much nailed it in this bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVTXFsHYLKA

Yes, I know there are politics involved, Republicans vs. Democrats, helping the needy vs. being self-sufficient, but the nature of reality is that there will always be people stuck in crappy situations who need help. I think it's pretty shallow to let people under your management who, in truth, make it possible for you to live so well as a company owner or manager, suffer with a crappy paycheck. Life isn't about money, but money is important because it's the grease that makes people's day-to-day lives flow - where you live, what car you drive or if you even have a car, what clothes you wear - all determined by your access to money, i.e., your paycheck.

It boggles my mind that people can be so cold-hearted about it in business. Especially in the restaurant business. I currently work roughly 70 hours a week in IT. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's a lot of hours. Yes, I'm on-call 24/7, get yelled out for computer problems, and have a receding hairline to show for it. But it's nothing compared to when I worked in fast food. I got crap pay for one of the most difficult & demanding jobs I've ever had in my life. But the people who get paid are the people who make the game, not the so-called pawns of the game. As they said in Ocean's 11, the house always wins. Managers run the show, so they are the winners financially.

Stinks. That's our society.

 

[Kaido]

TBH, working the cash register @ a busy McD's looks like complete hell. I'm a system admin and think my job would be much less challenging in comparison.

Yup. And having to deal with the public was one of the worst things I've ever experienced. People can be absolutely horrible. Just horrible. Sure, people can be super nice sometimes too, but someone can ruin your day just as easily, you know? I'm at IT admin as well and get my fair share of being hassled, but it's nowhere near the level of retail work. And people are usually bipolar in their treatment of IT people...when they have a problem, you're stupid, but after you fix the problem, you're the best guy ever.

Retail workers are treated as part of the landscape of the business rather than human beings a lot of times, so people feel they can be just as rude as they want. Sometimes, I think society should require humans to have their moms follow them around in public so they don't act like jerks

 

[drebo]

Part of the problem is that not everyone is intellectually gifted enough to get a job in something other than fast-food or retail work. I doubt there are many people who want to work at Walmart or McDonalds as adults, but people have bills to pay and you have to get by. I've had to work at Pizza Hut & Staples to make ends meet in the past. It stunk and it definitely motivated me to go to college, but not everyone gets that opportunity or has the ability to do that.

So this raises the question, should people who don't have the ability to do better than a minimum-wage job be stuck in poverty? To me, this epitomizes the "Occupy Wallstreet" movement, i.e. the 1% vs. the 99%. I have zero problem with people making millions or billions of dollars in our capitalistic society; if you want to get out there, work 100 hours a week, and make bank, then more power to you. But if you're doing it on the heads of what equates to modern-day slaves, then shame on you. $4,200 an hour vs. $8.25 an hour for the president of the company vs. the guy who actually does the work is ridiculous. Pardon the (extreme) language, but Louis CK pretty much nailed it in this bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVTXFsHYLKA

Yes, I know there are politics involved, Republicans vs. Democrats, helping the needy vs. being self-sufficient, but the nature of reality is that there will always be people stuck in crappy situations who need help. I think it's pretty shallow to let people under your management who, in truth, make it possible for you to live so well as a company owner or manager, suffer with a crappy paycheck. Life isn't about money, but money is important because it's the grease that makes people's day-to-day lives flow - where you live, what car you drive or if you even have a car, what clothes you wear - all determined by your access to money, i.e., your paycheck.

It boggles my mind that people can be so cold-hearted about it in business. Especially in the restaurant business. I currently work roughly 70 hours a week in IT. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's a lot of hours. Yes, I'm on-call 24/7, get yelled out for computer problems, and have a receding hairline to show for it. But it's nothing compared to when I worked in fast food. I got crap pay for one of the most difficult & demanding jobs I've ever had in my life. But the people who get paid are the people who make the game, not the so-called pawns of the game. As they said in Ocean's 11, the house always wins. Managers run the show, so they are the winners financially.

Stinks. That's our society.

Businesses are not charities.

The problem would fix itself if we'd let it.

 

[drebo]

So entry level jobs means we can demean them and pay them wages that can't even give them enough to pay for their own food? All the while some greedy ceo stuffs his Swiss bank accounts or buys his 4th house. Learn a little humility and compassion for your fellow humans you heartless troll.

Businesses are not charities. People are paid what they are worth.

 

[Kaido]

The problem would fix itself if we'd let it.

Uh, care to expand?

 

[Kaido]

Businesses are not charities. People are paid what they are worth.

And that's how our society rolls. We are not in the business of helping people, we are in the business of making profits and making the upper management rich. Simple as that. Fry cooks may be the hardest working employees in the org chart, but you can also replace them at a moment's notice with virtually anyone off the street, so their value in the company is fairly low.

Part of the issue is how to manage taking care of people. If you're making $8 million a year, should you pay the people who build your profits minimum wage? No, treat them good, obviously. But very few companies do that. Part of the reason is greed, but I think part of the reason is that it's very difficult to manage human nature. Human nature is to be as lazy as possible.

Just look at how many people are on welfare & food stamps who can work & contribute to society, but choose not to. There are nearly 13 million Americans on welfare and nearly 50 million on food stamps. There are definitely people who need and even require that assistance, but the system also has a ridiculous amount of abuse, and kids are growing up seeing their parents abuse the system and feel that it's their right to do so as well. So how do you manage it within a company where you want to pay your low-level guys well without creating a welfare trap?

I think motivation is super important & incentives are huge. Working in fast food absolutely pushed me towards college because I didn't want to be stuck in that stressful & demanding of a job for the rest of my life. Having low pay didn't help either. But again, not everyone is able to get out of that situation, for a variety of reasons from circumstances to low IQ to whatever. I don't think people who can't do better should be stuck in crappy living conditions, but there's no good way currently for businesses to filter out those people from people who just want to abuse the system, so most don't bother.

 

[Spungo]

What's so funny?

The U6 unemployment is something like 14%. McDonalds will have no trouble replacing every single worker who walks out. I don't know what the economy is like up in Canada but down here it's extremely bad. The workers have zero leverage at this time. Walking out is a horrible idea.


Anyway, those jobs will be replace by robots eventually. Do I really need to talk to a person to order a burger? I've worked at McDonalds and I know that the process is literally pushing buttons on a touch screen. What if the customers could push the buttons themselves? Can fountain drinks be automated? Of course they can. Ever order coffee from a vending machine?

 

[Kaido]

The U6 unemployment is something like 14%. McDonalds will have no trouble replacing every single worker who walks out. I don't know what the economy is like up in Canada but down here it's extremely bad. The workers have zero leverage at this time. Walking out is a horrible idea.


Anyway, those jobs will be replace by robots eventually. Do I really need to talk to a person to order a burger? I've worked at McDonalds and I know that the process is literally pushing buttons on a touch screen. What if the customers could push the buttons themselves? Can fountain drinks be automated? Of course they can. Ever order coffee from a vending machine?

I'd hate to lose jobs, but I'd also love to have better results haha. About the only place that is consistently decent is Five Guys, because (at least at the ones in my area) they make the food right in front of you, so you're not just some random dude passing through the drive-thru that they'll never see again & can make a crappy-looking sandwich for.

They could do it just like those fancy new soda machines (also at Five Guys) - everything in one box, pick your flavor combinations and out comes the soda mix like magic!

http://alloveralbany.com/images/5_guys_coke_freestyle_wide.jpg

 

[MagickMan]

They are underpaid, but not that much. $9-10 is about right for FF work.

 

[Ns1]

So entry level jobs means we can demean them and pay them wages that can't even give them enough to pay for their own food? All the while some greedy ceo stuffs his Swiss bank accounts or buys his 4th house. Learn a little humility and compassion for your fellow humans you heartless troll.

get more jobs to make more money. People are not entitled to 40 hour workweeks making 30k/year, sorry. Jesus fucking christ my first job out of college 7 years ago barely paid more than 30k and I was working WAAAAAAAY the fuck more than 40 hours/week. And college wasn't cheap either.

 

[sportage]

People should be outraged, or I mean tax payers should be.
McD's may pay minimum but YOU the taxpayer are making up the difference.
All the while McD's laughs all the way to the bank.

The public are so gullible and just plain stupid.
They think it's fine to pay minimum wage yet can not add 2+2 realizing they the taxpayer are picking up the tab.

If a worker makes $7.25 an hour full time that equals just over $15,000 a year before taxes.
Obviously that worker qualifies for food stamps and other taxpayer public assistance.
All while McD's laughs their collective asses off all the way to the bank.

If, on the other hand, that same worker earned $15 an hour full time, that equals $31,000 plus change a year, before taxes.

$31,000 would not qualify for public assistance nor food stamps.
You, the tax payer, would save money. Your tax paying neighbors would save money, and McD's as well as the other business welfare whores would carry that burden they created.
Never again passing the buck onto the taxpayer.

Now... Which of the two is the fair wage with benefitting the taxpayer?
McD,s as well as Wally World and all the others are not only screwing the worker by paying minimum wage, they are screwing you too, that tax payer.

And republicans in congress fight against a wage increase, yet have the nerve to call Obama the food stamp president.
WHY are people soooooo totally retarded not to see thru this scam?
Low wage companies screwing them, us, everyone.
And your congress?

 

[compuwiz1]

Think Progress....LOL!
We are watching the birth of the under-nation. If I were the employer, I'd say sure.....you can have $15 per hour, but you are going to damn well prove to me that you can put out much more, twice more, perhaps. Also, I'm gonna lay off half your co-workers / friends. You see, my financial statements have benchmarks. Those say that a % of gross revenue is allocated to all the expenses of running my business. Your request exceeds my benchmarks / guidelines, for running a successful business. Your ROI does not equate to the wages you are requesting, unless you are willing to work 24 hours per day...alone.

 

[Ns1]

Think Progress....LOL!
We are watching the birth of the under-nation. If I were the employer, I'd say sure.....you can have $15 per hour, but you are going to damn well prove to me that you can put out much more. Also, I'm gonna lay off half your co-workers / friends. You see, my financial statements have benchmarks. Those say that a % of gross revenue is allocated to all the expenses of running my business. Your request exceeds my benchmarks / guidelines, for running a successful business. Your ROI does not equate to the wages you are requesting, unless you are willing to work 24 hours per day.

So much this. A $15/employee better damn well be producing MUCH more than a 7.25/hr employee. @ $15/hour I bet McD will just install kiosks where you can go up and order and design machines to make everything. Total number of employ

 

[Via]

I'll admit it - I've never worked fast food.

But do those "register morons" really just sit on their fat asses and punch buttons and do nothing else? I worked pizza delivery, and I had to help clean at the end of my shift, sometimes for almost an hour.

I can't believe a register jockey doesn't have at least some other duties. Can a robot push a mop?

 

[Ns1]

I'll admit it - I've never worked fast food.

But do those "register morons" really just sit on their fat asses and punch buttons and do nothing else? I worked pizza delivery, and I had to help clean at the end of my shift, sometimes for almost an hour.

I can't believe a register jockey doesn't have at least some other duties. Can a robot push a mop?

They don't have any duties that entitle them to $15/hr.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You've obviously never worked fast food if you think it's a minimum wage job. It's fast paced and constant hard work. It's definitely worth more than $7 a hour.

Who says it is worth more than $7/hr? You? Who the hell are you exactly?

I'm going to repeat a suggestion earlier in this thread. Since you think you know it all, it shouldn't be hard for you to go open a restaurant or buy a franchise and pay your employees $15/hr or whatever you think it is worth.

So entry level jobs means we can demean them and pay them wages that can't even give them enough to pay for their own food? All the while some greedy ceo stuffs his Swiss bank accounts or buys his 4th house. Learn a little humility and compassion for your fellow humans you heartless troll.

No one should be looked down upon for working any job (well, except maybe porn "star" ). At least these folks are working and trying to pay their own way, unlike the "sob story of the week" we get from CNN constantly where the holes in the stories are big enough to float an aircraft carrier through. (I'm still laughing at the last sob story I read, where it boiled down to 4 adults living in a house and all had excuses for not working).

However, you CLEARLY have no clue how business operates or how salaries are determined. At the end of the day, a job is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If you can find someone to pay you $15/hr for flipping burgers, more power to you.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I currently work roughly 70 hours a week in IT. Yes, it's stressful. Yes, it's a lot of hours. Yes, I'm on-call 24/7, get yelled out for computer problems, and have a receding hairline to show for it.

You'll learn one day that you don't have to work 70 hours a week and you'll feel like a fool for being taken advantage of by your company. That was me 7 or 8 years ago and I put my foot down.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

And that's how our society rolls. We are not in the business of helping people, we are in the business of making profits and making the upper management rich. Simple as that.

Eh, no, that isn't how it works at all. The purpose of business is to make profits (you got that part right), but it is to make the shareholders rich, not the upper management. And if you're going to decry shareholders, think again -- if you have a retirement plan, you're probably a shareholder in many of these companies and your retirement depends on these guys.

Upper management is "made rich" by the compensation contracts awarded to them by their boards, who are allegedly working in the interests of the shareholders so that someone is hired who will not only maintain profitability, but grow the business and increase profitability. Yeah, I personally think many of them are paid too much but that isn't my decision. My big concern is that the boards have become a "good ole boys" club and award these insane compensation contracts as more of a "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" favor than for actual reasons of merit. I wish shareholders had more of a direct say because many shareholders are getting very angry with these compensation contracts. After all, they're taking away from my retirement.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

People should be outraged, or I mean tax payers should be.
McD's may pay minimum but YOU the taxpayer are making up the difference.
All the while McD's laughs all the way to the bank.

The public are so gullible and just plain stupid.
They think it's fine to pay minimum wage yet can not add 2+2 realizing they the taxpayer are picking up the tab.

If a worker makes $7.25 an hour full time that equals just over $15,000 a year before taxes.
Obviously that worker qualifies for food stamps and other taxpayer public assistance.
All while McD's laughs their collective asses off all the way to the bank.

If, on the other hand, that same worker earned $15 an hour full time, that equals $31,000 plus change a year, before taxes.

Oh good lord, Einstein has arrived. Let's say for the sake of argument that these workers currently make $7.50/hr and we raise them to $15/hr. What do you suppose will happen to their (McDonald's) food prices? What do you suppose would happen to the number of people employed? Who do you suppose will end up paying anyway?

So much this. A $15/employee better damn well be producing MUCH more than a 7.25/hr employee. @ $15/hour I bet McD will just install kiosks where you can go up and order and design machines to make everything. Total number of employ

Exactly. If people like sportage got their way, FF restaurants would just replace all of the cashiers with kiosks and maybe keep the cooks around until much of that could be automated. Drive up window person taking orders? You can outsource that to India or Mexico too since telecom is cheap and FF restauarants are already doing it.

 

[Ichinisan]

Can fountain drinks be automated? Of course they can. Ever order coffee from a vending machine?

All the McD's around here already have some robotic system for drinks. It drops the right size cup and fills it with the right amount of drink. If you request "no ice," it still fills the cup completely. It's even on an oval conveyor so they dispense one-after-the-other.

 

[Ichinisan]

I'd hate to lose jobs, but I'd also love to have better results haha. About the only place that is consistently decent is Five Guys, because (at least at the ones in my area) they make the food right in front of you, so you're not just some random dude passing through the drive-thru that they'll never see again & can make a crappy-looking sandwich for.

They could do it just like those fancy new soda machines (also at Five Guys) - everything in one box, pick your flavor combinations and out comes the soda mix like magic!

http://alloveralbany.com/images/5_guys_coke_freestyle_wide.jpg

Yeah. 5 Guys and Chick-Fil-A are consistently excellent with customer interaction.

 

[velillen]

Oh good lord, Einstein has arrived. Let's say for the same of argument that these workers currently make $7.50/hr and we raise them to $15/hr. What do you suppose will happen to their (McDonald's) food prices? What do you suppose would happen to the number of people employed? Who do you suppose will end up paying anyway?

That is exactly the issue. You jack the minimum wage up and everything else is going ot go up as well. Your apartment that they rent to minimum wage people cheaply...well shit they know you make double now so why wouldnt they charge you more. Since now they also have to pay their front office people and maintenance people 15 bucks an hour (most likely a raise for them as well).

Its my biggest issue with doubling the minimum wage. These people think it will just be an increase in money for them. They dont seem to realize that EVERY company out there will know you now make 30k a year. So everything will just go up in price. Which in turn will effect the upper class and actually bring them even further towards the lower class. In turn just further eliminating the middle class. Do i get a 7.75 dollar raise as well to make up for this? Nope. Hell i havent gotten any sort of raise for 4 years (or is it 5?).

Now had they asked for 1 or 2 dollar raise..or even up to 10 bucks. I doubt you would see nearly as much resistance from people. I know i would could support that kind of a raise in minimum wage. But 15 an hour...get fucked.


These people really need to wait and see what happens in Seatac as well. They keep claiming a win there but it is going ot court and hasnt taken effect yet either. SOme companies have already said if it happens they will be laying people off too.

 

[Fritzo]

Not a lot of jobs out there. There are a lot of good jobs out here going to illegals. Add to that they are sending the rest of them overseas it's not just as easy as you make it to get a better job. You could get the training and still go nowhere.

There are actually a lot of semi-skilled jobs available, but they're missing qualified people. Dental hygienists for example- they make $30K-$60K around here, and they're recruiting out of state because there's such a demand. The job required a 2 year degree and an 8 week certificate. It's easier to walk into a fast food place and say "Can I make fries?", so that's what people do.

McDonalds, Walmart, and the like are not supposed to be career jobs- they're supposed to be for young people who go to school, people that need a 2nd job, or retirees looking for something to do. If you try to make a career out of an entry level job you're going to be hurting.