Minium Wage/ McD's/ Sense of Entitlement

[mom2rtk]

Now that McDonalds is now hiring only part time employees, should they now pay a "living wage" divided into 28 hours instead of 40?

 

[mom2rtk]

Its not as easy for someone who is supporting him/herself to do it.

Who promised easy?

 

[Simba's Mom]

And for the lady who said even though she makes below poverty level income and yet they still take taxes out of your check...Yes they probably do but when you file your tax return at the beginning of the year you should be getting almost all of that back unless you are single, not married and have no kids. Then you might have to pay a few dollars in taxes but in most cases you will actually qualify for an earned income credit and get back MORE MONEY from the government than you actually paid in. Poor ppl don't pay taxes.

As a person who does income tax for the poor, I have experience that this is right. It's not unusual for a person to get 1/2 his yearly income as a refund. I've had people come in who'd payed no taxes during the year, yet they got a thousand or two back. Refundable tax credits-get back more than you paid. Not commenting on whether this is wrong. Just agreeing with this poster that it happens.

 

[sunshinehighway]

Who promised easy?

The poster I was quoting seemed to be saying its just so easy to get a grant and go to school. When I said easy I meant its just not as simple as s/he is making it out to be.

 

[descovy]

When you have a "good" employee busting their butt for "Mc Donald's" and not being payed a living wage, guess what? That employee turns to government aid... Food stamps, section 8, etc...

The OP should be angry that Mc Donald's get away with record profits, all while asking taxpayers to subsidize the living expenses of its own employees.

The retail job I work at currently has many good hard working people on food stamps. These are people who crass train and hustle for as many hours as they can get. At a previous job I had, "management" actually informed us employees the social services that were available to us. They couldn't pay us a living wage, but they could mentor us in filing for food stamps.

Save your sympathy for the CEO of Mc Donald's please.

 

[luvsJack]

If you can't get a ride back and forth to school how are you going to get a ride back and forth to work?

There are always a thousand excuses why ppl can't do something.

If ppl can't go to school because they are 19 and have 3 kids under age 4 and can't afford day care then usually those are the ppl our tax dollars will support for the rest of their lives and probably their kid's lives. So they aren't the ones working at McD's anyway.

As for someone not being able to pay their living expenses with $1000 refund you would get from the Pell grant, most ppl I have ever known in my life have gone to college while they still live at home with their parents. Most ppl don't wait until they are grown have families and lose a job at 35 to try to go to school.

If that is the case and they never went to school when they could then I say they are in a bad situation because of their own choices.

If you can't survive off the Pell grant refund then get a job while you are going to school. get 2 jobs. I did. I went to college full time with a family and held two jobs. If you want it bad enough you will find a way to better yourself and better your life.

So if someone loses a job at 35; a job that required the degree they got at 19 and they cannot find another job in that field they don't deserve a living wage anyway? I don't think I understand that statement.

As for being a young single mother--that my dear is a crock. There are a lot of young single moms working at places like McDs. Don't judge by assumptions.

As for working 2 jobs, we have students that during their time in one of our programs cannot work 1 job much less 2. Any that have families are usually getting some kind of support or help from their family along with the government so they can make it through. Most of the ones without some kind of support system don't make it to graduation. And even if they are working at McD's during that time; they still need a living wage.

 

[Art 1]

Y'all can argue all you want back and forth and keep this going. But there have always been the have's and have nots, and it will always be that way. It's really a waste of time to discuss all this.

 

[ronandannette]

Also, are you willing to pay %12-15 for a Big Mac? That's what this will get us.

Not sure what McDonalds prices are in the States now but we had breakfast from there this morning and I'm looking at the receipt right now. Bear in mind that starting wages at McDonalds here is $10/hr. (slightly more than the legal minimum but this market is competitive for labour, even students and seniors and FWIW, that is NOWHERE near a living wage in this city):

BLT Bagel Meal (w/hashbrown & milk) = $4.99
Sausage & Egg McMuffin = $3.49
Cinnamon Melt = $1.99
Large Coffee = $1.89
While it was early and the lunch menu wasn't up, I asked and was told at Big Mac costs $4.89; combo w/med. fries and med. drink = $7.59. The most expensive item on the menu is a "limited time" Chicken Club Sandwich = $5.29; combo w/med. fried and med. drink = $8.29
(All prices before tax which is 5%)

 

[manning]

Did everyone hear that sound? That was the sound of my head exploding.

This is in NYC. The most expensive city in the USA to live in. Minimum wage in New York State is $7.25.

You DO realize that not everyone can be rocket scientists, doctors, master plumbers, academy award winning actors, athletes, professors, managers, bank presidents, insurance salespeople, etc.

Someone needs to collect the garbage.
Someone needs to ring up your purchase at the grocery store.
Someone needs to cook your fast food burger.
Someone needs to clean that room you just stayed in.

Not everyone can afford a college education. Not every job requires higher learning. It's a matter of basic decency and respect, coupled by the fact many people don't want to pay higher prices for things so that people working these jobs can make more money.

So, one should not complain about living wages for fast food workers while munching on their dollar menu fries.

The dollar menu fries become three dollar menu fries. Might as well get my fries at a sit down restaurant.

 

[manning]

Some of the workers can be replaced.

Instead facing a live person and place your order you step up to a kiosk to place your order and pay for it.

I noticed that is now being done at Disney. Not sure about the paying part

One large chain has suggested they may do this.

 

[ironpig70]

What I hate is the unions and minimum wage crowd. Each year wages go up and these folks get a pay increase. Meanwhile my pay stays the same all the while everything goes up.

Like the OP stated if minimum wage is $15 an hour everything from gas to food to fast food would go up to a point where you'd need to make $20 an hour to make a living wage.

Minimum wage is for part time income for kids and people supplementing their income. It is not meant to live on.

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

Now that McDonalds is now hiring only part time employees, should they now pay a "living wage" divided into 28 hours instead of 40?

What does that even mean?

 

[xipotec]

What I hate is the unions and minimum wage crowd. Each year wages go up and these folks get a pay increase. Meanwhile my pay stays the same all the while everything goes up.

Sounds like sour grapes. Minimum wage is in place tp protect workers from companies that would work them 20 hour days for 2 bucks and hour, like many countries around the world.
Minimum wage is not a living wage by any means........
Most people without a degree struggle just to get any hours to actually work fill time, get any benefits or a raise of more than a
.10cent a year.....
I see this everyday in management....

 

[kaytieeldr]

I think any job should pay a living wage. Assuming you work enough hours.

Can't work mor than 168 hours a week without cheating at least two of the employers...and dropping from exhaustion (lack of sleep) after only a few days.

 

[penn19]

Y'all can argue all you want back and forth and keep this going. But there have always been the have's and have nots, and it will always be that way. It's really a waste of time to discuss all this.

I was thinking the same thing and didn't want to say it for fear I would be flamed.

 

[Art 1]

I was thinking the same thing and didn't want to say it for fear I would be flamed.

I've been flamed here so many times it doesn't bother me at all. Consider the source. The dis.

 

[Lionqueen2]

Y'all can argue all you want back and forth and keep this going. But there have always been the have's and have nots, and it will always be that way. It's really a waste of time to discuss all this.

You are so right.

 

[Colleen27]

The OP should be angry that Mc Donald's get away with record profits, all while asking taxpayers to subsidize the living expenses of its own employees.

Exactly!

There are certain economic facts that people don't want to face these days. First of all, the job market for college grads is quickly becoming oversaturated. Education is a self-limiting solution - it can only work for so many people before the number of educated applicants devalues the degree.

Second, we have lost milllions upon millions of middle class jobs in the recent recession and the jobs that are replacing them are largely low wage/service industry. That means displaced workers who already have families and mortgages and adult obligations left with no alternative to McJobs.

And third, what we're seeing with the increasing number of people relying upon government assistance is a simply us subsidizing the success of Walmart and McDonalds and other huge companies that horde their profits while letting the taxpayers provide for their employees.

I also think many of the people ranting about the push to increase minimum wage are far, far removed from what is happening to wages for the working class. When I was in high school, fat food and retail jobs started around $7.50/hour. Those same jobs are paying the exact same wage today. Discussions of a living wage aside, there is absolutely no convincing argument that can be made, IMO, that would justify companies that post profits of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter not raising wages one thin dime in a decade and a half.

It is a simple economic fact that 20 households earning 50K/year generate more economic activity and growth than a single household earning a million a year. We can't stimulate economic growth or jobs recovery by cutting taxes and spending less -businesses hire only when consumer demand justifies it, and consumer demand has a direct relationship to wages. Higher wages benefit us all, but to say that these days is political suicide. So we'll continue down our current path of high profits for a few and falling wages for the rest, increased reliance on welfare programs, stubbornly high unemployment, negative savings rates... and we'll blame it all on the poor, lazy people who didn't go to college without even one harsh word for the business owners who continue to demand that all gains in productivity and market share benefit only those at the top.

 

[Colleen27]

I guess the part I don't understand is why they think they should earn double what they do now. I can understand them wanting a raise, but double?? I teach Special Ed and just found out I will be getting a whole 2% raise. Woo hoo! In these economic times I think a 100% raise is totally unrealistic for anyone.

It is a negotiation strategy. When you're selling a house, you don't list it at your rock-bottom price. You build in room to haggle. Workers demand a huge raise, hoping that the employer will concede and offer a smaller one rather than face the negative effect of walk-outs, bad press, etc. I don't think it will work... Labor has no leverage any more, and everyone is easily replaceable in an economy where a help wanted sign in a fast food joint draws hundreds of applications. But I don't think anyone is really expecting the wage to double. That's just a starting point for the conversation we're having right now.

BTW, you got 2% this year, but I bet you got 2% last year, and the year before, and the year before that (give or take, of course). Many of the jobs that these people walked out of are paying the same wage they've paid for many, many, many years with no increases at all. I know people who are working now for less than they made in part-time high school jobs, because wages haven't budged even though costs have skyrocketed.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I have problems with this period.

College degreed medical assistants drawing blood and getting patients ready make $12-15 an hour.
School bus drivers make around the same, with the safety of 70 students per route per day in their hands, most with multiple routes.

You're telling me that pressing the "I want fries" button or counting 6 McNuggets in a box should pay more than skilled labor? Really?

Here is my background-1st in my family to attend college from a poor family. I made $4.25 an hour stocking clothes and ringing registers at a KMart for 6 years. I drove 55 miles round trip to a school I could afford for 16 credit hours a week, along with 40+ hours of work. My first apartment in 1995 had a black and white TV, lawn chairs, and garage sale furniture, my car was 8 years old. My schedule between school and work was 5:30 AM until often midnight 5 days a week, with the weekends working 16 hours at KMart and catching up on school work. It was tough, very tough. Nobody owed me anything, hard work earned the "better" life.

Now the thought process is that everything should be given....what happened to our society that hard work is no longer needed to get ahead in life? Now folks expect cel phones, drive expensive cars they cannot afford, buy houses too big, and then gripe that it's someone else's fault when they fail. Frankly it's sickening.

One thing I learned while working minimum wage for a few years is that I would get nowhere in life making that wage. I put on my big boy pants and did something about it, instead of griping that someone else is responsible. Instead of camping out in a city somewhere complaining of Wall Street greed, I went to school. Instead of whining about wages, I did something about it.

Enough is enough.