“I don’t think the majority here are against any one trying to make more money as an individual. It’s the “collective” that would rather put a company out of business (Hostess) than take less and save your own job. Even McDonald’s would pay more for experienced hard working people, but our society is crippled. Too many waiting in line for even lousy paying jobs.”
I don’t know. There were some pretty acid tinged posts about these particular workers.
Not arguing for a union but I am wondering. Outside of collective bargaining how do laborers best sell their labor.
I’m much to old believe that any major corp or really large company pays one penny more than they absolutely have to.
I’ve worked for smaller companies that based pay on merit and the better you got at your job the more you got paid. Yet I somehow don’t think that principle really applies to Micky Ds counterhelp.
So why exactly don’t these low skilled workers deserve to be paid up to just below the poverty level.
It’s not like Micky Ds isn’t doing the volume to pay for it.
The really unsettling part was the derision of the posters toward a group of people who are actually trying to make a living working. Would it be better if they quit and went all out on the public dole?
I thought labor was a legitimate business expense. If a company can only remain in business by having their employees live under the poverty line, then maybe they shouldn’t be in business.
Yet I somehow don’t think that principle really applies to Micky Ds counterhelp.
Most of them are franchises and are not big businesses.
“Outside of collective bargaining how do laborers best sell their labor.”
Improve what they have to offer.
The problem is there are too many people expecting good pay for lousy work. If the market needs 10,000 workers to do what pretty much anyone can do with a few minutes’ orientation, and there’s 50,000 people wanting to do those jobs, and 10,000 of those people are willing to take minimum wage for that work, then either 40,000 people need to either figure out how to get paid less, improve their ability so they can perform jobs warranting higher pay, move, or STFU and be thankful for any opportunity that opens for them.
Collective bargaining doesn’t work in this case because there’s nothing to bargain for: if they all quit, McD’s et al just put out “Hiring” signs and get back to normal a couple days later with new staff.
“So why exactly don’t these low skilled workers deserve to be paid up to just below the poverty level.”
Because “poverty level” is a farce. The US official poverty line is some 20x world median income. If you’re being paid twenty times what the top of half the world’s population gets, you’re not poor.
Urban living is expensive. If you can’t handle the cost, you gotta go somewhere else.