'You're trying to go up and you're just going down': Fast-food workers take to streets

CNBC ^ | August 29, 2013 | Jeff Cox

[Pete98]

Your sympathy doesn’t change the laws of economics. As long as tons of people (including millions of illegals) are competing for these jobs, the wages will stay low.

You get high wages when your level of education and training would make it tough for your employer to find a replacement should you depart.

Since literally any idiot can work at McDonalds, the employees have zero leverage.

And even if McDonalds did buckle and start paying everyone $12.00/hr, they would soon go out of business since Burger King, Wendy’s etc would keep paying their people $7.00 - thus allowing them to keep prices low and take away McDonalds’ customers.

Bottom line, the solution is not to wave a government wand and force the company to pay more. Deport all illegals and close the borders. Without the huge oversupply of labor, the labor of these fast food workers would start to become more valuable.

[GOPJ]

Same’s true for farm work...

Liberal elites don’t think we care that we’re paying for illegals, paying for unemployment for blacks, and paying with low wages for the rest of us. We notice - we care.

[Vendome]

hey numbnuts.

If the price of a 1/4er pounder or Burger Royale goes to $8, how is that helpful to anyone as sales will plummet and consequently the number of workers required to run the operations is reduced?

[Vendome]

Damnit!!!

FR is truncating again.

[BfloGuy]

There will be fewer fast-food outlets. Period.

No one will invest in them if the cost of labor is too high. What idiots.

[sitetest]

Go eff yourselves, Obamaites.

[Above My Pay Grade]

Where did I say the government should get involved? I said I would like to see them get a bit more pay but the market will decide.

[time4good]

A caller on Rush today had a great point. The low paying burger flipper wage is a great, natural incentive to moving up and out. Been there, done that - like most American boys (and girls). If smelling like chopped onions and fries grease at 11:30 at night doesn't motivate you to find a better paying job, then you've got some serious motivation issues. The idiot caller before that guy said that $15/hour was 'fair' 'cause the greedy rich Corporate fat cats don't deserve all their profits. Pure ignorance and covetousness.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Good lord. So now people have to be told that fast food is a transition job, not a career? There’s a reason I did it at the age of 17 but I’m not doing it now.

[dfwgator]

My local McDonalds and the one by my office is all illegals. None of them speak English well.

Explains why they never get the orders right, anymore.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

These wages shouldn’t be increased. If anything, lower them. Why? When I worked these kinds of jobs in college, it was the greatest motivator in the world to finish engineering school. I kept telling myself, “If you don’t finish school, this is your life right here.”

[Political Junkie Too]

"You're trying to go up and you're just going down,"

No, you're trying to get started.

"Go up" is what you do when you leave this job for a better one.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

How long will it be before HRM Obama declares that fast food restaurants must swear an oath to the IRS that they didn't fire workers because of minimum wage increases?

-PJ