Tony wrote:> Anxiouz wrote:
>> In CA the minimum wage for "fast food restaurant employees" is now $20/hr. So
> anything that doesn't specifically require a human is going to get an even stronger
> look to automate.
>>
> The answer is simple if the executives and stockholders will take a little less to
> absorb the increase. However, we all know that late stage capitalism isn't going
> to let that happen. Fast food restaurants have raised their prices multiple times
> and streamlined many of their processes while the minimum wage has been stagnant,
> and all of the extra profits resulted in increased executive pay. The ratio of executive
> pay to minimum wage is much higher in the US than anywhere else in the world. McDonald's
> and other fast food workers in Europe make fair living wages and their prices are
> comparable to those in the US.
>
> I believe I've told this story here before, but it bears repeating. I started working
> for McDonald's at $1.65/hr and the minimum wage was set to increase to $2.25/hr (about
> 33%) over a couple of years. McDonald's (and probably other fast food restaurants)
> lobbied Congress to be exempt, but was denied. A month or so after the first increase
> (to $1.90/hr), a restaurant industry magazine that the store put in our break area
> had an article that included the statement: "McDonald's MORE THAN EXPECTS to make
> up for the increase in minimum wage by increasing the price of its soft drinks by
> $0.05". At that time, this was a 33% increase (from $0.15 to $0.20 for a small drink)
> in only ONE menu item - and there were more humans behind the counter and doing food
> preparation then there are now.
>
> Not included in any of the discussion was that anyone already making more than the
> minimum wage didn't get a raise for the full amount. They only got increased to the
> new minimum or just slightly higher. I had gotten "merit" raises and was making $1.90
> when the first increase was to go into effect. New hires were increased from $1.65
> to $1.90. I got increased to $1.95. My check got similar hits every time the increases
> were mandated.
Interesting to me that the US has different standards when it comes to money. For example, you can expect to have a waiter complain about you if he doesn't get tips. Meaning that his base pay isn't that high. And I thought that people were pretty well paid in the country...
Compare that to Australia, where the minimum wage is AT LEAST $30 an hour, and that's only for a casual worker. thirty dollars is pretty good pay.