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I would never eat the slop they serve at these places but I do applaud the workers for demanding their rights. If they met in the middle, the Minimum wage would be about $11-which is what it should be if the US Dollar kept with the pace of inflation.
You wouldn't applaud them if you knew who it hurts. Many people think as evidenced by their "evil corporation makes X per year posts that this strike is saying something to McDonalds corporation. Guess what? You're actually hurting your neighbors.
McDonalds is a franchise business as are most all other fast food chains which means they are NOT owned by McDonalds, no, they're owned by independent small business people. These people may own one (or more) locations, they have to buy all goods from McDonalds not to mention tithe a franchise fee to McDonalds.
So, after all expenses and paying the franchise fee the owner gets what's left (after taxes of course).
The balance begins, how do you keep it profitable enough to own, pay McDonalds all the monies required and then pay all the employees who's salary is about half what they actually cost while keeping prices at a point that people will actually still buy the product?
How about these big companies who are amazingly wealthy live up to their social responsibility to the U.S. where they operate by paying their employees enough money to support themselves and not have to rely on public assistance in order to feed themselves and their families? As has been pointed out, our economy is making a huge shift to a becoming a service economy, which means that THESE TYPES ARE JOBS are going to be the MAJORITY of jobs available to our people in the not too distant future. It's time for the companies to "pay up" for their success and years of greed and taking, taking, taking from the taxpayers of the U.S. Raising the salaries of their employees is NOT going to hurt tem one iota. They'll still be far wealthier than 99% of our people would ever hope to be.
I highly suggest you read my post on ownership of the fast food restaurants you're so against. Maybe that'll add some info you seem to be missing.
There WERE more manufacturing jobs 40 or 50 years ago, but I knew plenty of adults working for minimum wage as well in retail stores, etc. The difference is that minimum wage hasn't kept up with the cost of living.
You're still missing the point that minimum wage jobs were never meant to be full time, "living wage", career positions. Many of the adults you reference went to work then as second income earners, which was a fairly new concept, after generations where just one person was the family's breadwinner.
When I was a very young adult, minimum wage had just gone up to $1.85/hour. If I worked a 40 hour week, I earned approx. $300 for the month. I lived in a state where approx. 1/3 of your salary came right off the top for taxes, which included city, state and federal. That meant I would see approx. $200/month take home.
I lived in a modest studio apartment where the rent was $165/month, plus gas and electricity.
That meant I either couldn't eat three meals/day, had to take in a roommate, and/or take an additional part time job. Either way, I couldn't afford medical insurance, air conditioning in the summer, TV's in more than one room, or even a basic telephone. I certainly couldn't afford a car and couldn't even afford to take the bus to/from work, so it meant a 1.5 mile walk each way, regardless of the weather. Sometimes I even had to do my laundry in the bathtub, (including jeans & towels, which would take days to dry and come out stiff), because going to the laundromat was an indulgence.
My point is even back then minimum wage jobs weren't meant to be a career for a family's only wage earner, nor were they meant to provide a "living wage".
"Average home size" is irrelevant to the topic of minimum-wage workers, since that "average" is being driven mainly by the upper-middle class, as well as the 1st-2nd-3rd homes of multimillionaires and billionaires.
You'd get more accurate analysis from the median home size specifically in the New York City area.
the trouble with finding the """median home"""" size for NYC...is NYC is mostly APARTMENTS.....you have to go to the outer bouroughs or the suburbs to find actual single family, free standing houses
when we lived in brooklyn, our home was a walkup brownstone....total sf for the place was 4000-5000sf...but it was 4 stories( plus a basement), each story an apartment...and it was part of 'row' construction
How about these big companies who are amazingly wealthy live up to their social responsibility to the U.S. where they operate by paying their employees enough money to support themselves and not have to rely on public assistance in order to feed themselves and their families? As has been pointed out, our economy is making a huge shift to a becoming a service economy, which means that THESE TYPES ARE JOBS are going to be the MAJORITY of jobs available to our people in the not too distant future. It's time for the companies to "pay up" for their success and years of greed and taking, taking, taking from the taxpayers of the U.S. Raising the salaries of their employees is NOT going to hurt tem one iota. They'll still be far wealthier than 99% of our people would ever hope to be.
I highly suggest you read the facts I posted as they'll add information you're clearly lacking when attacking fast food restaurants.
My wife has an associates deg, and works in Banking and has for 20 years. She is being paid 15 and hour and these burger know nothings want 15 and hour? They can stuff their fast food. I will not go to any of the outlets for a cup of coffee if they cave to the liberals.
And if you look at median home sizes from the link I posted, you will see the exact same trend. Median home sizes in the northeast actually have an even larger disparity than the national average home size over time.
Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see a link. I only see a graphic.
You wouldn't applaud them if you knew who it hurts. Many people think as evidenced by their "evil corporation makes X per year posts that this strike is saying something to McDonalds corporation. Guess what? You're actually hurting your neighbors.
McDonalds is a franchise business as are most all other fast food chains which means they are NOT owned by McDonalds, no, they're owned by independent small business people. These people may own one (or more) locations, they have to buy all goods from McDonalds not to mention tithe a franchise fee to McDonalds.
So, after all expenses and paying the franchise fee the owner gets what's left (after taxes of course).
The balance begins, how do you keep it profitable enough to own, pay McDonalds all the monies required and then pay all the employees who's salary is about half what they actually cost while keeping prices at a point that people will actually still buy the product?
I understand how franchises work and realize the franchisee often has a slim profit margin but still I applaud any worker who realizes that all income gains in our society the last 30 years have gone to a tiny fraction of the population-like less than 1%. That is not indicative of a healthy economy-Wal-Mart should not be the largest employer in our tax-payer funded welfare system. Multi-National corporations are now more powerful than whole nations. There is no hope for our economy or future if these trends continue.
I read that the SEIU has provided funding and training and organizers in the big cities to help the workers do their strike the right way..the union way.
Looks to me like the union is looking for some fresh meat.
They need to be protesting in DC, not in front of the local McDonalds.
Only Congress can raise the min wage to $15/hour.
Unskilled burger flippers making $32K a year ?
That's more than the starting salary of a first year teacher with a 4 year degree.
But these folks think they deserve it because they work harder than the billionaires.
They have families. They have no skills to work their way up the career ladder.
They want their fair share.
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