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I'm not saying that they deserve it, but when did it become a bad thing to ask for it? Do fast food workers tell you what your employer should be paying you? If not, then why is it so important to tell them what they should or shouldn't be asking for?
And yes...Fast food has traditionally been a jump off point for the workforce, but that ain't the case anymore. Times have changed. Young kids means high employee turnover, and turnover is expensive. I've noticed that the workforce in fast food is much older than it once was as the service industry has supplanted jobs that we no longer have.
Still, the bottom line is that you can ask for more, and your employer can reject it. Why should I care if they want more? I don't HAVE to buy a hamburger if I don't want to.
Well it would be one thing if they were asking for it.
But they are threatening increased violence and crime if they don't get it.
In times gone bye, low skill workers were employed in manufacturing. Many were members of organized labor.
Many were able to grasp the lower rungs of middle class for a blip in time.
The combination of outsourcing and technology eliminated tens of millions of jobs. Why pay a premium to sustain the middle class when the same goods can be acquired elsewhere for less? Why pay a human when a machine is more productive?
Walmart overtook IBM as the largest US employer in the 80's. McDonalds quickly pushed IBM to the number 3 spot. No coincidence that the EITC was substantially increased at the same time that the employment market for low/ unskilled labor collapsed.
Every country in the developed world is facing the same challenges. No one knows what to do with the preponderance of low- no skilled adults. At the same time, parts of Asia have emerging economies and quickly become a part of the consumer base. Once they become too costly, they too outsource to cheaper economies and invest in technology. This will work it's way through Asia and eventually land in Africa.
This opinion piece is dated 1994, written by Paul Krugman.
Everything the man says won't happen actually did happen.
And then in 2007 he changed his tune when his glossy text book theories proved wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/op...14krugman.html
Fears that low-wage competition is driving down U.S. wages have a real basis in both theory and fact. When we import labor-intensive manufactured goods from the third world instead of making them here, the result is reduced demand for less-educated American workers, which leads in turn to lower wages for these workers. And no, cheap consumer goods at Wal-Mart aren’t adequate compensation.
I respect their right to ask for it, as much as I respect their employers right to seek a new workforce, firing the present ones. Employment At Will works..for both.. Great legislation.
There is no inherent monetary value of different kinds of work. If demand for McDonalds food was high and labor was reasonably scarce then there is no reason a burger flipping job couldn't be worth $15 an hour. That should be the goal, but I doubt those conditions exist now.
Williston, ND ( oil)
$11/ hr starting pay for fast food and retail.
$15/ hr for experienced workers.
Rent on a per square foot basis is amongst the highest in the U.S. Lot's of oil workers living in their cars and sending $ home.
$11/ hr starting pay for fast food and retail.
$15/ hr for experienced workers.
Rent on a per square foot basis is amongst the highest in the U.S. Lot's of oil workers living in their cars and sending $ home.
It's all relative.
Relative to demand vs supply. We have a huge supply of unskilled workers in America.
Areas with high turnovers have no need to increase salaries. Training is minimal for these types of jobs.
Even manage turnover is high. These people seem to just job hop from one min wage job to the next.
And then in 2007 he changed his tune when his glossy text book theories proved wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/op...14krugman.html
Fears that low-wage competition is driving down U.S. wages have a real basis in both theory and fact. When we import labor-intensive manufactured goods from the third world instead of making them here, the result is reduced demand for less-educated American workers, which leads in turn to lower wages for these workers. And no, cheap consumer goods at Wal-Mart aren’t adequate compensation.
In 2000 GE sold 280 gas turbines to US customers during a short lived US power bubble. In 2012, GE sold only 3 to US customers due to a declining - over served, US energy market.
At the same time, GE secured a $2.7 billion contract for gas and steam turbines from an Algerian state- owned group. The contract resulted in sustaining US jobs and creating new GE jobs in Algeria. No doubt, at the same time some new McDonald and Burger King franchises were sold to serve the Algerian market.
Today, about 60% of GE's business is derived from outside the US. And most GE jobs in the US depend on continued expansion into foreign markets.
What comes around/ goes around.
Last edited by middle-aged mom; 04-04-2015 at 12:04 PM..
In 2000 GE sold 280 gas turbines to US customers during a short lived US power bubble. In 2012, GE sold only 3 to US customers due to a declining - over served, US energy market.
At the same time, GE secured a $2.7 billion contract for gas and steam turbines from an Algerian state- owned group. The contract resulted in sustaining US jobs and creating new GE jobs in Algeria. No doubt, at the same time some new McDonald and Burger King franchises were sold to serve the Algerian market.
Today, about 60% of GE's business is derived from outside the US. And most GE jobs the US depend on continued expansion into foreign markets.
What comes around/ goes around.
No different than IBM.."India Business Machines"..a company of over 400,000 employees and less than 80K are Americans.
No different than IBM.."India Business Machines"..a company of over 400,000 employees and less than 80K are Americans.
All due to labor costs, not lack of skills.
Best estimates for IBM India headcount is about 100,000. out of 400,000. The average wage for IBM India is $17,000. IBM has major employment centers in Canada, all over Europe and in South America. It makes sense given 64% of IBM's revenues come from overseas.
IBM got it's start with time card machines and eventually moved onto main frame hardware. Now they are a major multinational, knee deep in Africa pursuing big wireless networks. They compete on a global basis with companies all over the world.
51% of Ford's profits are from overseas sales. Ford is one of the biggest auto manufacturers in China. Makes sense that they have plants in China and employ Chinese. Shipping and handling would be a killer.
66% of McDonald's profits are from overseas.
Walmart is increasing dependent on overseas markets, under different brand names. Their US market is an older demographic and US business is substantially more competitive than it is offshore. While Walmart may be the only game in a rural area that hardly compares to being the only game in a country.
40% of the profits from firms listed on the S&P 500 is derived from emerging economies.
Guess all these multinationals could have attempted to survive in the mature US market and declined to engage in global competition. How many would have survived without continued expansion? Instead, they chose to capitalize on rapid growth in emerging markets and derive stronger profits than they ever could have, back home, regardless of the US economy.
Last edited by middle-aged mom; 04-04-2015 at 01:35 PM..
Relative to demand vs supply. We have a huge supply of unskilled workers in America.
Areas with high turnovers have no need to increase salaries. Training is minimal for these types of jobs.
Even manage turnover is high. These people seem to just job hop from one min wage job to the next.
If that turnover reaches a sufficiently damaging rate than there is a need to raise wages to counteract it (although it's a zero-sum game from the employer POV, only works if they're ahead of the pack). You might not need much in the way of long term skills development to stock shelves at the grocery or super store, but if a large proportion of stockers at any given store haven't been there long enough to memorize the location of everything (both from a placement time and helping customers perspective) you have a serious problem. Minimal training means higher turnover can be accepted but there's still a limit.
Also, there is a difference in quality of workers even at or near minimum wage. The staff tends for example to be much better at a Five Guys than a McDonalds. Pay is about the same, but the work environment makes one a much more desirable job. It's harder to change work environment, but for anything customer facing, if a couple extra dollars an hour can help get more upbeat, polite, cares-about-their-work, better looking, more hygienic, etc. unskilled workers than the competition, that's huge.
Although, again, this is only achievable by offering higher wages relative to the competition, if both you and the other guys in town raise at the same time no impact -- which is why all the low-pay corporations seem to be increasing pay in tandem right now, no one wants to be left behind as the lowest payer.
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