Originally published at: Self-amused fast food CEO taunts employees with the lottery rather than meaningfully improving their lives | Boing Boing
…
8 Likes
If any of the tickets hits Raising Cane’s will split the winnings across all 50,000 of these employees.
Isn’t there a shortage of restaurant workers now? I hope most of them tell this CEO to take a chance on finding 50,000 other people to put up with this bs…
18 Likes
So, (some loose math) split across 50k employees, that’s probably $4,500 per person after the IRS takes their bite. However, a $2/hr raise would gain every employee about $2,890.8 per year after taxed wages, and continue to keep on giving as long as the employee is employed.
33 Likes
This is for the 850 million mega millions jackpot. Lump sum is roughly half - then take out 39% for taxes - that leaves each person (assuming 50k is exact) with roughly 4.94 million after taxes
4 Likes
It’s his version of pizza parties or gift cards. All bullshit.
Fast food CEOs often are gaping assholes, though.
Chipotle hired a new one in 2018 and forced 400 workers to choose between finding a new job or moving to SoCal. Why? He didn’t want to move. Not even a lottery or pizza party to soften the blow. Here’s one report.
Say it out loud:
13 Likes
Yeah, the Chipotle thing was bullshit. My sister-in-law was forced to find a new job because of that twat.
5 Likes
Nope. $425M/50k == $8500 before taxes.
16 Likes
Not to be grim, but I would assume the IRS would take their cut before the redistribution to the employees? Or is there some type of clause in lottery winnings that it is somehow filed individually even if it is collected by one entity or organization?
If the 39% is taken, that only leaves about $5500.
From the linked article it says they are planning on raising wages to $14/hr, up about 15% - which would have put them pre-raise at roughly $12.20/hr. At 50k employees working 40hr/wk to go to $15/hr would cost the company $291 million.
I have mixed feelings on paying fast food workers $15/hr. Mostly because the local Taco Bell only gets my order right 50% of the time at best.
That’s the corporate culture and that starts at the top.
If the CEO forfeited $1k every time an order was wrong then how fast would the culture change?
14 Likes
Have you ever worked as a fast food employee?
It’s not as easy as you might think. There is constant pressure to get the order out faster and faster.
The employees are constantly timed and in addition to that there is the abuse and having to clean the most disgusting things you can imagine in the bathrooms.
I’ve worked it and my wife did almost 20 years working for the largest franchisee in the country as district manager and finished her career working for a small franchisee as their manager.
They required the employees to punch out and sit in the dining room until it got busy. Working with the flu throwing up in a trash can in the back and then making your food was also a thing to not get fired.
Pay them more and treat them like people and they might give a rats ass about your taco.
30 Likes
I have not, but I have worked on a high speed production line. So the constantly watch, timed, berated, and abused aspects…yes I’m familiar with them.
I doubt it would, and I’m not sure they would care. I work in industrial manufacturing now and like everywhere else there are a shortage of workers, especially welders. Top paid welders are being paid as much as mid level salary employees, even before any overtime. But does that bring in quality employees? Not really. We routinely get younger people in who work for a few years and buy all their toys (a nice truck, perhaps a boat or side by side, ect…) and then quit. We work fairly consistent schedules, any overtime is known well in advance, and the production pace is very reasonable. Upping the position another $10k a year isn’t going to change who’s applying or retention.
As far as the local Taco Bell goes, the only pressure on them would be applied by corporate. There isn’t a line out the door. Most times there are no more than two customers. All your points above don’t explain how a fast food place like Chik-Fil-A performs at such a higher level of customer statisfaction than most other restaurants do.
They most likely have a higher staff count. Getting things right isn’t rocket science - have enough staff to share the load and everyone is able to produce. Most fast food franchises operate on an excel macro that judges the past several years sales with staff needs and cuts the number by 1 to save a buck.
The only way you can get good work out of people who are having to make up for lack of staff is incentive - if you make enough at your job that loosing it would make it very difficult for you to find another job paying the same amount - then you will value the job and put extra effort in to keep it.
Cut both corners and you get staff that are overworked and not paid enough to care because if they get fired they can work any other place and make as much if not more.
edit - the second one - paying enough - that’s Costco’s model - and it’s why their stores are clean and pleasant to be in vs. your average walmart.
14 Likes
It is corporate’s responsibility to fix problems and attract/hire the right people.
4 Likes
This was my line of thinking, but your math is likely more precise than mine.
5 Likes
To be even grimmer, I am pretty sure that the IRS would tax the winner for the winnings, regardless of what he/she does with them, and then also tax each employee who received a cut. It might be possible to set up some kind of trust to disperse the winnings without any individual person claiming them, but then you have legal fees to contend with.
9 Likes
11 Likes
This is the correct answer. They take their cut off the big jackpot, and then they will take payroll taxes for the “bonus” each employee gets.
This is really just a fucking joke of an idea.
19 Likes
This actually depends a fair bit on the specific business model being employed. If the local store is actually a corporate owned branch then yes you are correct. But in the instance where it’s a locally owned and operated franchise, then a large amount of that responsibility is instead shifted to the local franchisee, who may have a large amount of leeway in terms of things like wages and hiring, even if in theory there’s ultimately some sort of larger corporate guidelines they should be adhering to.
1 Like
That this CEO voluntarily pays “the fool’s tax” tells us all we need to know about what kind of businessman he is.
11 Likes
You made the mistake of dividing 39% of 850 mil by 50k, getting 4.94 and assuming that meant 4.94 mil. It’s 4.94 k, or 4,940.
4 Likes
