The answer to $15.00 Hour fast food restaurant wages

[Gumbo4x4]

You can find these rental prices in most of the state of Michigan, and probably much of the midwest (outside of the Chicago area) and I'm guessing pretty much the majority of the south (North Carolina for sure....but I'm guessing on the rest).

And in my area, where the cost of living is ridiculous, my MIL rented an apartment for several years (just moved last year into SIL's house) for $995/mo for a two bedroom.

It can be done, my friend. Not in Seattle like a PP said, but in many, many parts of the USA, which is what we are talking about here. FEDERAL min wage being $15.00/hour. About 95% of American has a lower cost of living than Seattle, New York, or Sol Cal. At the VERY least, the min wage hike should be decided at a local, or even a state, level.

We all have to remember to compare apples to apples when discussing these types of things.

Apartments within walking distance of my job can be had for $550/month. Building is less than 10 years old. Cheaper ones exist as well here in town, ~$350/month being in the very low end.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Well, must be nice. I'm sure you could see where it'd chap some behinds for the ER tech that makes $23,000 to see that FF workers would be making the same or more.

I can't imagine Columbus, Ohio being on some odd pay grid of it's own with these professions.

Those jobs pay really poorly where I live as well. It's definitely out of whack.

 

[longboard55]

No, customers aren't supposed to make adjustments to pay for it.

It's all supposed to come out of profits.

Please, Disney ,Starbucks ,movie theaters have had not issue raising prices constantly the last 7 years while wages have not budged

 

[Hikergirl]

Aaarcher, this is what it says when doing a google search so no I don't think where you are has some odd pay grid.

An Emergency Room (ER) Technician earns an average wage of $13.31 per hour. People in this job generally don't have more than 20 years' experience. $20,455 - $46,176.

The median wage for an EMT is $31,700. That's just $500 more a year than some think a fast food worker should make. Caaaraazyyy.

 

[longboard55]

Just for the record, California started raising the minimum wage 18 months ago, I think it is $10 now, and in 2015 California led the nation in job creation beating Texas and Florida and had their best jobs creating year in a decade. Seattle and NYC also had very good years, both wage raisers

 

[aaarcher86]

Apartments within walking distance of my job can be had for $550/month. Building is less than 10 years old. Cheaper ones exist as well here in town, ~$350/month being in the very low end.

Same.

We rented a 2 bedroom "condo" for $650/month. It wasn't in a good area, but they're definitely out there.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Take it out of executive pay.

We've already been down that road. There isn't enough salary paid IN TOTAL at the executive level to give them a cut and use the money to "help" the entry level workers.

Giving a $5 per hour raise to 100,000 employees would cost over $1 billion per year. Cutting the excutives' pay would even put a dent in that.

 

[penn19]

Just for the record, California started raising the minimum wage 18 months ago, I think it is $10 now, and in 2015 California led the nation in job creation beating Texas and Florida and had their best jobs creating year in a decade. Seattle and NYC also had very good years, both wage raisers

Have you been to Texas lately? I live in the DFW metroplex and the amount of people moving here from California (well not just California either) is crazy. The amount of companies moving here is crazy.

 

[kamik86]

Please, Disney ,Starbucks ,movie theaters have had not issue raising prices constantly the last 7 years while wages have not budged

During that time the cost of gas skyrocketted which affects all of those businesses. Food prices were also went way up affecting all three. For the movie theatre in that time most had to redo large parts of their theatres for new 3D movies.

Wages affects the price yes but they have had other costs to pass on during that time.

 

[sunshinehighway]

Those jobs pay really poorly where I live as well. It's definitely out of whack.

Is it really out of whack though? The truth is jobs like that (emt, er tech, cna)usually require minimal training for certification and there's a large pool to fill the positions. Shouldn't those people just find a better profession? Isn't that what posters are saying about other low paying jobs?
Personally I think it illustrates the larger problem. While I don't think $15 min wage across the board is feasible, there does need to be an increase and col in some area does justify $15.
Those. (emt, cna,...) types of jobs are important and we should want good, hard working people doing them. People should be able to support themselves with those types of jobs.
It'ss easy to just focus on fast food workers and say "yeah a burger flipper shouldn't make $15/hour" but when you start looking at other low paying jobs it's a little harder to say that.

 

[Mom of a great kid]

.

This is a lovely line of thinking, but not the reality of what would happen in the ripple effect of FF workers getting $15/hr.

And for the record, I wasn't complaining. I said I wouldn't support the movement and said why. In my reality, this is what the job paid with various companies. We wanted to make more, so DH went to nursing school while he worked at a hospital. Four days of school/clinicals per week and 3 days of 12 hours shifts, all with a family. It was brutal and exhausting, and now he's a nurse making a great salary because HE did something about his situation and made some sacrifices for a couple of years. He didn't expect some bizarre trickle effect.

So is he part of a union now, like so many other nurses?

 

[mom2rtk]

Please, Disney ,Starbucks ,movie theaters have had not issue raising prices constantly the last 7 years while wages have not budged

But not every company is a Disney or a Starbucks.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

Dang, now I'm craving a Bic Mac.

 

[longboard55]

But not every company is a Disney or a Starbucks.

ok, lets do it this way, there is a number called S an P earnings which is a measure of profits of all San P companies, so it is broad range. If we go back to 2007, which was a pre crash year and a very good earnings year and when they last set the minimum wage, profits have increased 33% but the min wage has increased zero. Do you have an excuse for workers not getting a part of the success.

 

[Hikergirl]

ok, lets do it this way, there is a number called S an P earnings which is a measure of profits of all San P companies, so it is broad range. If we go back to 2007, which was a pre crash year and a very good earnings year and when they last set the minimum wage, profits have increased 33% but the min wage has increased zero. Do you have an excuse for workers not getting a part of the success.

That may be true for Federal minimum wage but that does not mean that individual states haven't raised it. IN January 2007 minimum wage here was $6.75, its now $9.00. I also mentioned up thread that $15 minimum wage has been approved here.

29 states have minimum wage set higher than the fed level.

 

[Vaughn4380]

Dang, now I'm craving a Bic Mac.

That will be $29.99 please.

(Sorry, our salary costs just went up so we had to increase our prices a bit)

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

That will be $29.99 please.

(Sorry, our salary costs just went up so we had to increase our prices a bit)

That's a whole new definition of super size it!

 

[Christine]

So, are YOU willing to take a pay cut to get more money into someone else's pocket?

I'm not quite sure how you made the leap from the CEO/counter worker wage disparity to ME taking the cut in pay to account for McDonald's CEO/shareholder greed.

The pay gap separating fast-food workers from their chief executive officers is growing at each of those companies. The disparity has doubled at McDonald’s Corp. in the last 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, the company helped pay for lobbying against minimum-wage increases and sought to quash the kind of unionization efforts that erupted recently on the streets of Chicago and New York.

McDonald’s is part of a larger trend of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, according to data from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. The pay gap between the average S&P 500 CEO and the average U.S. worker, which was 42 times in 1980, widened to 380 times in 2011 from 325 times in 2010, the umbrella group of 56 unions said.


Note bold italics above. See the difference between 1980 and today? That's the real problem. You up the minimum wage just to the amount that would match inflation (doesn't have to be $15) and reduce CEO/shareholder profits by that much. That's fair and a solution and gets people off welfare to live. It might take the CEO/shareholders vs. average worker down to say 100 times instead of 325. But as long as the workers have absolutely zero power, it won't happen.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I do not agree with fast food workers making $15 an hour.

I worked at McDonald's in high school making minimum wage at $5.50 an hour. Fast food workers should make minimum wage. It's not rocket science to assemble some burgers and drop some nuggets into oil.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I'm not quite sure how you made the leap from the CEO/counter worker wage disparity to ME taking the cut in pay to account for McDonald's CEO/shareholder greed.

The pay gap separating fast-food workers from their chief executive officers is growing at each of those companies. The disparity has doubled at McDonald’s Corp. in the last 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, the company helped pay for lobbying against minimum-wage increases and sought to quash the kind of unionization efforts that erupted recently on the streets of Chicago and New York.

McDonald’s is part of a larger trend of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, according to data from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. The pay gap between the average S&P 500 CEO and the average U.S. worker, which was 42 times in 1980, widened to 380 times in 2011 from 325 times in 2010, the umbrella group of 56 unions said.


Note bold italics above. See the difference between 1980 and today? That's the real problem. You up the minimum wage just to the amount that would match inflation (doesn't have to be $15) and reduce CEO/shareholder profits by that much. That's fair and a solution and gets people off welfare to live. It might take the CEO/shareholders vs. average worker down to say 100 times instead of 325. But as long as the workers have absolutely zero power, it won't happen.

I'm asking why you're ok with taking money out of the CEO's pocket, or out of the shareholder's pockets, to pay someone more, but you're not willing to take it out of your own?

You're talking greed. EVERYONE wants more money for what they do.
If your boss came up to you and said "Christine, we're giving you a raise", would you turn it down? No, I don't think so.
If the boss said "Christine, you're getting a raise. Bob (your coworker) isn't", would you turn down your raise because it's not "fair" to Bob? Would you offer to split your raise with Bob? No, I don't think so.

It's easy to play "share the money" when it's not your money, isn't it?