Some jobs just aren't good paying enough for a person to comfortably support themselves with. Some jobs pay well enough to comfortably care for a family and home. That's simply the economics of any market.
You said that you used to pay some of your help $11 an hour. I don't care where you live in the US, that's not enough to feed, clothe, and house a family. Even a single person would have a very tough time making ends meet on that salary.
Now, did you owe it to those employees to pay them more than what their labor was worth in your market, just so they could be a bit more comfortable? No, you didn't, and because of the fair market rates for your company's products, I doubt there was anything left in your budget to pay them more.
You might as well tell your customers that they're paying you unfairly for your products, and demand a higher fee. You and I know that they'd look at you cross-eyed and give the job to a contractor who charges fair market value for his goods.
In your opinion would it be wiser for MickyDs to raise the pay or to have them unionize. And if they unionize will the MickyDs stay open?
Brother, this isn't rocket science. You were a business owner. What would have happened to you, if your employees had unionized, and forced you to pay them more? You probably would have gone broke and closed shop, because your customers certainly wouldn't have given you a dime more than what your products were worth.
Unions today do nothing but distort markets, destroy businesses, and jobs. Sometime I'll tell you how the Teamster's Union destroyed one of the best jobs I ever had. All because they wanted more pay for less work. There's only so much of that a company can take before they're bankrupted.
“Brother, this isn’t rocket science. You were a business owner. What would have happened to you, if your employees had unionized, and forced you to pay them more? You probably would have gone broke and closed shop, because your customers certainly wouldn’t have given you a dime more than what your products were worth.”
That’s a fact. But my products weren’t the same as MickyDs.
They have a national reputation and an already built in supply of customers.
I have no real idea of what the numbers are for a burger stand like that.
I will say that given the volume they do they may be forced to increase prices per unit. That may be the price they pay for staying open.
I didn’t do enough volume to be able to do that.