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The terrible part with raising fry cook to $15/hr means in the short term they are pacifying the unskilled masses. In the long term, they are opening themselves to increased exploitation, less safe working conditions, cuts in hours, possible firing or replacement with technology, and the worst of all, the lowering of the labor standard in this country. When "do you want fries with that" pays more than "emergency medical technician" we have a problem.

 

I always saw it as the first step to paying everyone more.

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I was a gas station manager for a number of years.  I had many applicants from people that should have never, never, never been a gas station clerk.  It was sad.  People with college and experience, older people.  No one would hire them.

I have several serious issues with University Education (Uk version of College) and making it more available to everyone

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Also, where is all this extra money coming from? You can't just increase the amount of currency in circulation to make up for the increase in the minimum wage paying out more without making the currency worth less than before. Finite wealth means finite value.

In other words Inflation 

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Also, where is all this extra money coming from? You can't just increase the amount of currency in circulation to make up for the increase in the minimum wage paying out more without making the currency worth less than before. Finite wealth means finite value.

 

Well, it could come from the margin of the company, yo know. It's not like McDonald's is a struggling company that couldn't pay the managers less to raise the pay of the workers. They just don't want to.

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Victoria, its the same in this country..a lot of people are in jobs but are way too over qualified for it.  But also they sometimes can't even get jobs because they are too over qualified.

 

Luckily I have qualifications and I am in exactly the right job to utilise these.

That's why I didn't bother going to Uni, found a job that offered qualifications that mean something to the industry that I am in and away I went. Really pissed off my parents that choice

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No one can tell me McDonald's doesn't have money...

I wouldn't disagree, but in a capitalist market, companies are always looking at how they can improve their bottom line. And like CJ mentioned, I'd give it a couple of years after this goes into effect before we start seeing automated cash registers.

 

10 Cashiers on staggered shifts will eventually be replaced by 2 IT technicians.

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But why does mcDonalds have money?  I can bet its like most large corporations.  They have been charging over the odds for the fare they serve up, whilst paying staff the basic they have to...

 

All the real profit is lining the shareholders pockets....

There really isn't that much profit on a store by store basis, once overheads have been taken into account (wages, power, water, insurance WASTAGE(big issue in fast food)) there isn't all that much left over, that's why there are so many of them. With the amount of drive thru's that are opening lately that increases the amount of small profits from individual stores

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Thing is Dirial, they likely couldn't reduce the wages of staff without going through expensive and quite likely lengthy legal proceedings.  They could hold the management salaries at a level and raise the lower paid workers.  But that wouldn't sit well with management.  Unless in your example you mean cut the number of management jobs and re-siphon that money into the lower paid workers?

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For me, there is a serious problem if ANY job where someone works full time, they are unable to afford to live in the most minimal way.  Housing, food, utilities.  I don't care if it is fast food, being a bathroom attendant, or whatever.

 

Thats just wrong.  No matter what the job is.

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For me, there is a serious problem if ANY job where someone works full time, they are unable to afford to live in the most minimal way.  Housing, food, utilities.  I don't care if it is fast food, being a bathroom attendant, or whatever.

 

Thats just wrong.  No matter what the job is.

Ah the "Living Wage"

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@ Deluge, maybe in smaller fast food outlets that is the case, but I think a large multinational chain like Mcdonalds is likely making quite healthy money from the individual stores?  After all, they are selling a small burger, some fries and a drink for about £4.50...  The actual raw material to make those burgers is likely to be costing them about £0.50 a meal...don't forget they can buy in huge amounts from suppliers for large discounts.

 

Light and heat are likely to be high overheads granted.

 

I couldn't comment on wastage (in the back I mean, not left by customers).

 

But I bet the wages are only just at or above the minimum they have to pay.  It may have changed but I was on a comparable pay with a manager of a mcDonalds when I was just a stock clerk in a Boots.  They worked 40+ hours a week, I worked 34.

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For me, there is a serious problem if ANY job where someone works full time, they are unable to afford to live in the most minimal way.  Housing, food, utilities.  I don't care if it is fast food, being a bathroom attendant, or whatever.

 

Thats just wrong.  No matter what the job is.

Problem with the minimum wage going up is that it only temporarily helps offset the cost of living. The real problem (IMHO) is that cost of living needs to come down in an effective way that all can benefit.

 

I wonder if that is actually cheaper.

Kiddng aside, one of our hires from last year came into our company at an entry level position, with a Master's Degree. It wasn't in IT, but he's very well acknowledged in the IT world, and has since become our office's unofficial IT Tech. For what it's worth, I did my best to make sure he got some compensation for his efforts, but if McDonald's starting paying their IT tech's at $15/hour to start, I'd think of them as fortunate.

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However we look at it, there are only three ways for the capitalist economies to let the workers share in their profits:

 

-If the workers force them (strike, unions, etc)

-If the law forces them (minimum wage etc.)

-If the customers force them (only buying from fair companies, paying more for the same stuff etc.)

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