Fight for $15. (Fast food protest)

[Blitz24]

Isn't California bankrupt still? I can't see this as being a good thing. As many on the prior page said in September this is going to be a move that those petitioning for it are:
A) Not actually fast food workers and hate the restaurants.
B) Have no idea what simple economics is.
C) Are robots disguised as people looking to finally make inroads on their uprising.

 

[Joel]

I used to be a Kitchen Porter at a family run Italian restaurant. Harsh work and not even some of the best pizza in London could make up for it. My next job was in a warehouse which was the final straw that pushed me to return to education. Come to think of it, if I was getting a crazy good minimum wage in those jobs my life could have turned out a lot differently.

Yeah exactly. People barely put up with stressful kitchen jobs where they burn and cut themselves frequently and kitchens are upwards of 60 degrees for $12 an hour. Hard to believe they'll stick with it when they can go work at McD's and watch a big George Foreman press cook the burgers for $15.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Used a self service MacDonalds the other day. When you're in the service industry and you service is poor, when there's that many of you that a small unit saving becomes a large bottom line saving, I'd keep my mouth shut and accept the fact I shoulda tried harder in life.

 

[huskeR32]

Isn't California bankrupt still?

No. As a state, California never filed for bankruptcy at all. A few cities did though (San Bernardino, Vallejo, Stockton).

In fact, as a state, California is currently experiencing budget surpluses, and has made one of the largest recoveries of any state since the recession of 2008.

 

[Tornado]

http://newsexaminer.net/food/mcdonalds-to-open-restaurant-run-by-robots/

I wonder how related this is.





(I'm pretty sure it's satirical)

 

[Grayfox]

If they want to earn $15 an hour, they should first move to australia.
See how expensive things are here to justify our $15/hour wage.

 

[DK]

Used a self service MacDonalds the other day. When you're in the service industry and you service is poor, when there's that many of you that a small unit saving becomes a large bottom line saving, I'd keep my mouth shut and accept the fact I shoulda tried harder in life.

Of course, because bad luck never happens.

 

[FoolKiller]

(I'm pretty sure it's satirical)

Don't be too sure.

Of course, because bad luck never happens.

Bad luck doesn't explain a person working in one of these jobs for 10+ years and never making above minimum wage, or jumping from one minimum wage job to another over ten years. When people argue for living wages in these jobs cases of long-term minimum wage earners are the ones they drag out. Somehow it makes me the a-hole when I ask why they have been stuck in that position for so long.

 

[miata13B]

I don't normally get involved with stuff like this. In a sense though this is going to effect me majorly depending on the outcome of this. I have been working in the restaurant industry for quite sometime. During this time there have been a lot of current and previous co-workers that have been the best and worst of this industry.

I do not feel compelled to fight for higher wages in my position because in essence I make a pretty comfortable living doing what I do. I make almost 100% of my income on tips. The 40 or 50 dollar paycheck I receive every week really means nothing to me, but it helps as long as it doesn't get zeroed out and I don't owe on taxes at the end of the year. That is the only thing I care about with my hourly wage. I feel if my wage is increased it is a good possibility that I will be owing money to the government at the end of the year because it will pull me into a higher tax bracket which personally I do not need to be in, nor do I think most tipped employees in the restaurant industry really understand that will happen.

I am all for non tipped restaurant industry people to get a higher minimum wage. Having worked with some of the best back of the house employees that give 110% and find more when needed they deserve better pay. They make ends meat compared to their talent. A 15/hr minimum wage though I feel is kinda ludicrous. It will offset everything in the industry. You think my $12 to $15 Manhattan is expensive or my $16 Sazerac is priced too high, wait until the employers need to compensate for not earning enough gross income to pay all their bills and employees. They will react to this by raiding their prices for everything across the board. Then people are going to start thinking twice before going out to a restaurant to eat.

The problem will be this though, a lot of privately owned restaurants will shut their doors because they are simply not producing enough gross income week after week because of this. A buddy of mine in the industry right now is in Seattle and it is becoming a huge deal. He is a bartender just like me and part of the elite in our industry. He is actually going to be moving back to Connecticut in a few months because of this along with other issues out there. He already sees what is going to happen to the industry and from his mouth he said, "If you are not making enough money through tips in this industry then you have one of two problems. You are either working at the wrong place or you are simply not cut out to work in this industry." There is a ton of truth behind this.

Anyways, did not mean to break up the flow of this conversation, it has been the first time since coming back to GTP that I felt compelled to get involved in one of these threads.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

They make ends meat compared to their talent.

 

[jimipitbull]

$8 an hour is your minimum wage? For an adult? Is that for permanent full time employees, or just casual/part time?

No wonder the Australian car industry is dead, what with all these cheap cars made in US sweatshops flooding the market.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Don't be too sure.

Used one of those in France last week... What's the point in paying someone to enter your order on a touch terminal when you can do it yourself.

Macdonalds food is still rubbish mind you.

 

[Omnis]

$8 an hour is your minimum wage? For an adult? Is that for permanent full time employees, or just casual/part time?

No wonder the Australian car industry is dead, what with all these cheap cars made in US sweatshops flooding the market.

Sweatshops? Come off it.

I went to McDonald's the other night. Was pretty surprised at how dumb these kids have become. Im sure they're decent kids but there's no common sense. You have to tell them how to do their jobs and where to find what you want.

Frankly, I'd rather order from a machine. Let me use a smartphone app that I can NFC over my order and payment in one go.

 

[FoolKiller]

$8 an hour is your minimum wage? For an adult?

What does age have to do with it? You are paying a person for the job they do, not for the time since their parents didn't use protection. A burger flipper is a burger flipper whether they are 14 or 40.

Is that for permanent full time employees, or just casual/part time?

It's hourly pay. If you work 4 hours a week you get $8 for each hour. If you work 40 hours a week you get $8 for each hour. If you work over a certain number of hours you may qualify for additional benefits, like insurance and paid time off, but your take home pay is still $8 for each hour you work.

No wonder the Australian car industry is dead, what with all these cheap cars made in US sweatshops flooding the market.

Big jump from jobs intended to be part time jobs for teens to career industrial jobs. Most auto factory jobs in the US pay more than the $15 that LA just enacted. In fact, they usually pay enough for middle class families to live off of.

Let me use a smartphone app that I can NFC over my order and payment in one go.

Wendy's and Taco Bell will let you do this now.

 

[jimipitbull]

What does age have to do with it? You are paying a person for the job they do, not for the time since their parents didn't use protection. A burger flipper is a burger flipper whether they are 14 or 40.
.

I wasn't aware of that - in Australia, there are different rates of pay, minimum wage (about $16/hour) applies to those aged 18 and over. Teenagers have a lower minimum. We also have different rates of pay for permanent, casual, part time etc.

 

[DDastardly00]

Just a thought,

$15 an hour is just the start, what the unions really want is $20 per hour (for now, until that goal goes up to $25 an hour).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/18/socialist-13-hour_n_6008432.html


EDIT:

And also, there is this: "SEIU is lovin’ it: One of nation’s richest unions subsidizes fast-food worker strikes"

http://watchdog.org/210649/seiu-union-fast-food/

If the unions can successfully 'Unionize' the fast food industry and raise the minimum wage to $15, then they will make a killing on union dues.

 

[CodeRedR51]

$8 an hour is your minimum wage? For an adult? Is that for permanent full time employees, or just casual/part time?

Depends on the state. Arizona is $7.25 I think, maybe $7.85. And that's part time and full time, depending on the job.

 

[Johnnypenso]

I wasn't aware of that - in Australia, there are different rates of pay, minimum wage (about $16/hour) applies to those aged 18 and over. Teenagers have a lower minimum. We also have different rates of pay for permanent, casual, part time etc.

All dollars are not created equal though. $AUS16 = just over $US12. The international purchasing power of your dollar is just over 3/4 of a $US so your goods and services will likely reflect that by being higher in terms of your own dollars vs. $U.S.

 

[jimipitbull]

All dollars are not created equal though. $AUS16 = just over $US12. The international purchasing power of your dollar is just over 3/4 of a $US so your goods and services will likely reflect that by being higher in terms of your own dollars vs. $U.S.

The dollars were created equal, and they were equal about 12 - 18 months ago. Low dollar is good for our exports, and encourages the tourists.

 

[KSaiyu]

Just a thought,

$15 an hour is just the start, what the unions really want is $20 per hour (for now, until that goal goes up to $25 an hour).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/18/socialist-13-hour_n_6008432.html


EDIT:

And also, there is this: "SEIU is lovin’ it: One of nation’s richest unions subsidizes fast-food worker strikes"

http://watchdog.org/210649/seiu-union-fast-food/

If the unions can successfully 'Unionize' the fast food industry and raise the minimum wage to $15, then they will make a killing on union dues.

Take it from Britain, you don't want overly powerful unions.

 

[DDastardly00]

Take it from Britain, you don't want overly powerful unions.

I live in the land of Boeing and the country's first city to approve the $15 min wage, Seattle. I think Unions do have their place. That being said, you are certainly spot on with that statement. Too much power anywhere is a very bad thing.

 

[ildd]

$15 an hour is just the start, what the unions really want is $20 per hour (for now, until that goal goes up to $25 an hour

Lol god. I'm content with $8.60 An hour.

 

[Johnnypenso]

The dollars were created equal, and they were equal about 12 - 18 months ago. Low dollar is good for our exports, and encourages the tourists.

And bad for imports, driving up the cost of foreign produced goods, which I'd imagine is most consumer goods, given the geographical size and low population of Australia. That $15 minimum wage in Australia probably doesn't go as far as $10-12 would in the U.S. or Canada. These statistics seem to support that.

 

[jimipitbull]

And bad for imports, driving up the cost of foreign produced goods, which I'd imagine is most consumer goods, given the geographical size and low population of Australia. That $15 minimum wage in Australia probably doesn't go as far as $10-12 would in the U.S. or Canada. These statistics seem to support that.

It really depends where the goods come from. There isn't too much I can think of that is imported from North America. I much prefer to compare our dollar to the Vietnamese dong.

Hard to compare how far that wage goes when you look at the bigger picture - things like taxation, government funded health care, superannuation, unemployment benefits and pensions vary quite a bit between these countries.

Also, $1.04 AUD = $1 CAD

 

[ildd]

Vietnamese dong

That's not a very fair comparison...

 

[jimipitbull]

That's not a very fair comparison...

On the brighter side of things, Vietnam has a lower unemployment rate than Australia, USA and Canada.

 

[JKgo]

I much prefer to compare our dollar to the Vietnamese dong.

our dollar to the Vietnamese dong.

Vietnamese dong.

dong.

.....

That bad, huh.

 

[Imari]

.....

That bad, huh.

The fact that the phrase "Vietnamese dong very small" accurately describes the situation is even more amusing. For maximum hilarity, do it with a hokey Asian accent.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

My question is why? Why should I break my neck to do well in life and pull out loans and what not to go to school, because I realized long ago that a simple customer service job wasn't going to get me much in life. What gets me even more is when they protest on purpose right past the university I go to as if they'll get our sympathy? And then tell me that this can happen to anyone...when in reality that isn't the case. The guy protesting for the highly valuable hard work he puts in as a Medical professional, Law professional, Science or Engineering seem like a meaningful thing to do and proper. The guy who punches numbers into an oversize calculator so he doesn't end 20 under or over on his register at the end of shift and has done it for five years without looking to do better in life...should get 15 dollars and hour why?

My wife makes a little more than 15 and hour at the Hospital doing Medical Assistance while going to school for her RN, so why should someone that flips patties get as much as her for breaking her back.

 

[Johnnypenso]

It really depends where the goods come from. There isn't too much I can think of that is imported from North America. I much prefer to compare our dollar to the Vietnamese dong.

Hard to compare how far that wage goes when you look at the bigger picture - things like taxation, government funded health care, superannuation, unemployment benefits and pensions vary quite a bit between these countries.

Also, $1.04 AUD = $1 CAD

But we do know that at least on the most basic necessities of food, fuel and rent, it appears that Australian dollar is 20% behind the American dollar in purchasing power and if you're at minimum wage, that's important, since food, fuel and rent make up the majority of your after tax spending if you aren't living at home.

My question is why? Why should I break my neck to do well in life and pull out loans and what not to go to school, because I realized long ago that a simple customer service job wasn't going to get me much in life. What gets me even more is when they protest on purpose right past the university I go to as if they'll get our sympathy? And then tell me that this can happen to anyone...when in reality that isn't the case. The guy protesting for the highly valuable hard work he puts in as a Medical professional, Law professional, Science or Engineering seem like a meaningful thing to do and proper. The guy who punches numbers into an oversize calculator so he doesn't end 20 under or over on his register at the end of shift and has done it for five years without looking to do better in life...should get 15 dollars and hour why?

My wife makes a little more than 15 and hour at the Hospital doing Medical Assistance while going to school for her RN, so why should someone that flips patties get as much as her for breaking her back.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will upset the workplace dynamic there is no doubt. Minimum wage employers will no doubt seek ways to employ less people and will definitely raise prices to compensate. Your Big Mac combo won't be $6.99 anymore, it might be $7.49 or $7.99. Selve serve stations will begin to appear all over the place in retail. Self checkouts that are already prominent in supermarkets and other retailers will also expand. Less people will be employed as a result. Remember too that everyone along the chain also gets at least $15/hr as well. The guy that makes the buns, the delivery guy that delivers the buns, the gal that works in the factory that makes the plastic bags that the buns come in, the kid working the stamping machine that makes the little plastic closer for the bag that holds the buns. They all go to $15/hr if they aren't there already and that cost is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. The cost of almost all basic goods and services will rise noticably with a dramatic rise in minimum wage, there's no way to escape it.