Burger King employees had enough of poor working conditions and put up big sign: WE ALL QUIT.

[some_guy]

So the old slogan “Have it your way at Burger King” doesnt apply to employees? (I guess it hasnt applied to customers in a long time either.)

[Nightflyer]

@lava

If reducing staff to reduce man-power cost would yield a way to regain that profit, they would have already done it.

That’s standard policy in retail. Payroll is the most controllable expense big business owners have, so the bosses don’t hesitate to cut hours and run with the fewest possible people operating the store, expecting each worker to do more and more. And when sales drop because everything isn’t getting done and customers are walking out because they can’t get all the help they need, well, the standard procedure is, blame the employees and deny them raises, because “the store can’t afford it on what it’s making.” Meanwhile, executives sail away on their golden parachutes, because heaven forbid they get their pay cut.

@lava

It just does not work that way.

It’s true… but big bosses don’t care, because they’ll be all right. There’s always another company willing to hire them. Their employees don’t always have that luxury.

@MagicFox

Let’s assume a McDonald’s restaurant with 8 FTE workers working in overlapping shifts, at $7.50/hr. That’s 64 hours, or $480. Also, assume that restaurant sells 200 meals a day, at $10/meal on average. That’s $2000 revenue. That’s also $2.40/per meal in labor.

Doubling minimum wage would make labor $4.80/meal. Being a corporation with at least one intelligent accountant, that price would be rolled back into the price of the meal, raising it to $12.40/meal. Or, put in different terms: that increase represents 10 minutes of the $15/hr worker’s labor.

So why doesn’t it work that way in Denmark? Employees there get a living wage, but the price of meals is less than a dollar more than it is here.

As AOC Heralds Denmark McDonald's Wage, Here's How Much a Big Mac Costs

Not to mention, many businesses will avoid having full-time workers as much as possible, because then they’re required to pay them benefits, and that’s not an expense they want to have. In retail, it’s not unusual to have a couple of full-time managers, and the rest of the staff scheduled just under the minimum limit of hours to qualify as full-time. Of course, nobody can live on that, which is why so many minimum-wage workers have more than one job.

@MagicFox

Its all about having a labor force so desperate for work they’ll endure all kinds of abuse and mistreatment from management. It’s very telling that conservatives’ plan for getting people back to work is not making it more attractive to seek employment (by raising minimum wage), but rather make them desperate to go back to work by taking away their benefits.

That is 100% truth.

[Quinn_Skylark]

Billy Bragg -There Is Power In A Union

[DukeTrout]

@MagicFox

Resistance to raising minimum wage isn’t about cost or profits, as any business will roll these costs into the final price of goods and services.

Which they’ve done prospectively without increasing wages. Prices of those goods have increased far faster than the minimum wage over the same time period.

[5ghillary]

Wish they would have unionized instead.

[lava]

I don’t disagree with any of that, but notice, even in MagiFox’s description of McDonalds, the Profit is never mentioned –– that’s never a variable that can be reduced to keep the meal cost down, and the wages up. Its all a battle of labor cost vs product cost. And thats why taxes cut to the bone - you can’t pin it on labor, it comes off profit only, and why they fight it.

[jbmonkeythumper]

[DukeTrout]

@Nightflyer

That’s standard policy in retail. Payroll is the most controllable expense big business owners have, so the bosses don’t hesitate to cut hours and run with the fewest possible people operating the store, expecting each worker to do more and more. And when sales drop because everything isn’t getting done and customers are walking out because they can’t get all the help they need, well, the standard procedure is, blame the employees and deny them raises, because “the store can’t afford it on what it’s making.” Meanwhile, executives sail away on their golden parachutes, because heaven forbid they get their pay cut.

The thing is, you also just described the business model of a high-tech company I used to work for, just on a different scale. The workers made a lot more than minimum wage, but still a lot less than industry standard. They would cut a department down to the bone, so that the people left would be working like mad to keep it going. They would deny them bonuses, raises, and advancement because the department goals weren’t being met, then hire someone less experienced than the existing staff to run the department and “clean it up” while actually being trained by them.

The only people who were promoted were those who left and came back after working somewhere else.

Last time I checked, their average term of employee retention was less than one year. No real surprise

[knoxblox]

I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down.

What part of “I quit” do these guys not understand?

Also, the federal bump to unemployment during the pandemic shakes down to $7.50/hr for a 40 hour work week (assuming they’re getting $300/wk). That almost doubles the Nebraska minimum wage of $9/hr. And we’re also assuming Nebraska hasn’t put the brakes on pandemic assistance, as many red states are doing.

[anon27554371]

@DukeTrout

The thing is, you also just described the business model of a high-tech company I used to work for, just on a different scale. The workers made a lot more than minimum wage, but still a lot less than industry standard. They would cut a department down to the bone, so that the people left would be working like mad to keep it going. They would deny them bonuses, raises, and advancement because the department goals weren’t being met, then hire someone less experienced than the existing staff to run the department and “clean it up” while actually being trained by them.

Nailed it.

In Austin’s tech industry, this is the model, but for a few additional deets:

• Existing staff are then fired (“laid off”) once their cheaper replacements are trained “enough.” I have lost count of the number of times this has happened in my partner who works in tech.

• “Clean it [the company] up” can and often does mean that the company is about to be sold, in which case, just start the whole process you just outlined again, from Step One.

@DukeTrout

The only people who were promoted were those who left and came back after working somewhere else.

This is exactly what happened about two weeks ago, right here, for my partner’s short-contract job.

@5ghillary

Wish they would have unionized instead.

Eugene V. Debs - Wikiquote

The capitalist class is represented by the Republican, Democratic, Populist and Prohibition parties, all of which stand for private ownership of the means of production, and the triumph of any one of which will mean continued wage-slavery to the working class.

How workers in France occupied a McDonald’s and turned it into a food bank to...

Thanks @Quinn_Skylark, always good to hear from Billy “Mr. Love and Justice” Bragg. I played in on the big speakers here. Wondering if the good people of Lincoln, Nebraska will stand in solidarity with these workers.

[Stripes]

@JRLu

customers like local businesses who take care of their employees.

You would like to think that, but many many people don’t care if a business is local or not, nor if it takes care of the employee or not.

On the other hand most care if the employee does a decent job and/or if they have a decent attitude…both of which I think are closely correlated with being paid well.

So maybe indirectly customers like businesses who take care of their employees.

[MagicFox]

@Nightflyer

So why doesn’t it work that way in Denmark?

It could be that they sell more meals. I just used 200 as a base number; the cost per meal is only $.96 if they sell 500 meals, and of course goes down even further the more meals they sell. I chose 200 meals because it is small enough to resemble a slow day’s sales, and big enough to sound impressive to anyone not in the business. (At least, to my mind.)

[Franko]

that’s the most polite mass-quit i’ve ever seen.

[ejeffrey]

@MagicFox

Let’s assume a McDonald’s restaurant with 8 FTE workers working in overlapping shifts, at $7.50/hr. That’s 64 hours, or $480. Also, assume that restaurant sells 200 meals a day, at $10/meal on average. That’s $2000 revenue. That’s also $2.40/per meal in labor.

As I recall, McDonald’s own calculations showed the effect is much lower than that. And this analysis (I havent checked their methodology pegs the price increase at 4.7%, so less than $.50 on your $10 meal: This Is How Much A Big Mac Would Cost If The Minimum Wage Was $15 – ThinkProgress

They also conclude that based on other research the decreases turnover and training costs might save more than the extra wages cost.

[tcg550]

@lava

I don’t disagree with any of that, but notice, even in MagiFox’s description of McDonalds, the Profit is never mentioned –– that’s never a variable that can be reduced to keep the meal cost down, and the wages up.

I’ve asked that question many times.

I’ve had a tiny little service business for 30 years, we’ve employed me and the wife up to 7 - 9 employees.

We’re back to just me and the wife but when we had several employees they were always paid a few dollars more an hour than the going rate which was minimum wage. I was paying 11 - 15 bucks an hour to high schoool and college kids 15 years ago.

My attitude has always been, if you make me money you’re worth more to me. In 30 years I only had to fire one girl for smoking a joint on the job. I’m still in touch with employees that stopped working for me many years ago. I’ve even loaned money for car repairs and other things that came up. They also got overtime for every Sunday I needed them even though they may not have had 40 hours.

I had a heart attack almost 10 years ago, when a couple of former employees found out they got in touch with my wife to offer to cover any jobs that had to be done. Maybe I got lucky or maybe I managed to teach them about loyalty, work ethic, and friendship. I learned a lot as well.

I also bought lunch for everyone and gave them all Christmas bonuses even though they were usually back in school at Christmastime.

I could have a few more dollars in my bank account or even retire a little earlier but I can sure sleep better at night.

Maybe Bezos could pass on his joyride in space and pay his workers a little more and still be the richest guy around.

[Bobo]

And there’ll be people applying for the job openings, even having heard what went on.

When you need to pay rent and buy food for the kids, even hell seems tolerable for a while if it comes with a paycheck.

[MagicFox]

I’m trying to bend the universe in her favor over here!

[MagicFox]

@lava

the Profit is never mentioned –– that’s never a variable that can be reduced to keep the meal cost down,

I didn’t include profit in my calculation because it is a red herring in the discussion about raising the minimum wage. Profit is added after all the other expenses are factored into pricing. In my scenario, if McD has a 5% profit on meals, that would increase the price per meal by $0.13; if 10% profit, $0.25 — or 1 labor minute at a $15 minimum wage.

We can debate whether their profit margin is ethical or not, but in the discussion about raising the minimum wage it is irrelevant. Profit only really comes into the discussion of it is about a company unilaterally increasing their wages, as opposed to all companies in an industry being required to raise wages.

[lava]

@tcg550

I could have a few more dollars in my bank account or even retire a little earlier but I can sure sleep better at night.

A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.

[Grey_Devil]

Thanks! I’m sure she’ll appreciate any good karma sent her way