Do Tell ...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

[okaawhatever]

1. I would like to see the profitability of each store. I don't know what McDonald's labor costs are

but I doubt there's much of a difference.

[Sancho]

8. I'll bet there's a difference..

the service at the McDonald's with higher pay probably is much better - with better morale and less turnover.

Many years ago, my wife and I worked our way through college at minimum wage jobs. We worked at fast food, factory labor, construction, and office work. I drove a school bus for minimum wage (at the time $1.85 an hour). I worked for Burger King and a taco restaurant at the mall. Every semester or summer or holiday, we ran out and found another similar job.

I remember a local steak house offered me, my brother, and my future sister-in-law jobs at $1.00 more than all the other local junk jobs. It would be the equivalent of 1/3 more than the going minimum wage. I worked there more than 2 years, and got a dime raise every now and then. The owner openly said that he paid more because it got him the best employees, the employees didn't change every few months, and he could train people to do skilled jobs. We felt appreciated even though we were mostly just students or part-time. Even the waitresses and bus boys were guaranteed a salary instead of complete dependence on tips. I remember a few who worked there for years.

He was right!!

[okaawhatever]

11. Actually, that is what I was thinking. I should have said the difference in profitability once the

turnover, product loss due to incompetence, etc is taken into account. I'm also sure the better employees work on the Washington side, just like at the steakhouse you described.

[spooky3]

21. Check out "efficiency wage theory" in economics

There's some support for your POV.

[okaawhatever]

22. Will do thanks. nt

[tazkcmo]

2. 6 bucks for a "happy" meal?

Holy crap! That's a lot of money for a little, if any, happy.

[safeinOhio]

6. Same price for local

Chinese buffet, all you can eat. Fast food is no longer fast or cheap.

[tazkcmo]

7. I'll say.

And that only adds force to the argument for an increase in pay at these places.

[thesquanderer]

13. Fast food is still fast

and a lot of it is still cheap... they'll have "dollar menus" or "value menus" to counter the rise in some of the other products

[CFLDem]

15. No kidding

I can go to a sit down restaurant for the price of a Wendy's meal.

[noamnety]

3. I can't believe anyone pays $6 for a big mac.

It's been ages since I ate at a McDonalds, but geez. It's a half pound of shitty beef which would cost about $1-2 in a grocery store, plus 20 cents worth of starches and 20 cents of condiments.

(sorry, not the point of the thread, I just had no idea it was that pricey)

[antiquie]

5. It's the packaging costs, not the food.

[LadyHawkAZ]

9. It's loaded with fat and salt

Tastes great to people whose diet is already unhealthy. I used to crave McD's for the the salt content back before they corrected my thyroid imbalance. These days it tastes awful and gives me a nasty headache.

[Blanks]

20. I can't eat anything at McDonalds (except salad) without feeling nauseous. eom

[12AngryBorneoWildmen]

12. It's for the meal-fries and drink, too.

However the meat in a Big Mac-2 patties-I'm pretty certain is less than a ½ pound. I think the patties are 10 to a pound.
Therefore less than a ¼ pound. .2#

[RC]

14. That is the patty weight before cooking.

Depending on contained water and fat, the weight after cooking will most certainly be less.

[noamnety]

18. I didn't include the drink

because it had no actual value in my mind.

[marble falls]

4. Been boycotting the clown since '86. Nothing surpises me about pink slime purveyers.

[Purrfessor]

10. 2007 NYTimes article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11minimum.html?pagewanted=all

But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.

[grantcart]

16. This is why Walmart shareholders will eventuallly become the strongest proponents of min wage ++

But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.

Increased minimum wage means more disposable income for those businesses. like McDonald's and Walmart, and more sales per trip. Walmart will soon saturate the number of stores that they have and the kind of products that they can sell. Their only path for increased profits is to get more sales per trip per customer and that can only be achieved with higher wages at the bottom.

The point of your graphic is undermined by the article, however. The reason that both stores sell at the same price is because, despite the difference in legal minimum wage they are still in the same job market and the higher wage in WA trumps the ID price.

Idaho teenagers cross the state line to work in fast-food restaurants in Washington, where the minimum wage is 54 percent higher. That has forced businesses in Idaho to raise their wages to compete.

. . .

By contrast, an Idaho restaurant owner, Rob Elder, said he paid more than the minimum wage because he could not find anyone to work for the Idaho minimum at his Post Falls restaurant, the Hot Rod Cafe.

“At $5.15 an hour, I get zero applicants — or maybe a guy with one leg who wouldn’t pass a drug test and wouldn’t show up on Saturday night because he wants to get drunk with his buddies,” Mr. Elder said.

So increased minimum wages will have a slight impact on prices but the overall impact means increased economic activity and the increase in sales will mean more profits (and they will still pass on the slight increase in cost anyway).

And this is proved by this excerpt, which is the real point of the article:

Washington’s robust economy, which added nearly 90,000 jobs last year, is proof that even with the country’s highest minimum wage, “this is a great place to do business,” Mr. Brunell said.

[cthulu2016]

17. So raising the national minimum wage would not raise prices?

I think the national minimum wage should be $15.00. That is what I think.

Raising the national minimum wage would, in fact, raise prices. And that is fine with me. It is, in fact, desirable.

And now the hedging starts... "Okay, yes it would raise prices, but the increase would be "modest" or "less than you'd think", etc..

Okay, then why pretend it will not raise prices? Modest is not a synonym for zero.

It is not right to use falsehoods as a proxy for truths that are "too complicated" The bumper-sticker mentality arguments just make people dumber.

Would raising the minimum wage to $1,000/hour raise prices? Yes. One hopes everyone gets that.

And smaller raises increase prices less than would a raise to $1,000. "Less." No zero, less.

And making an argumen based on flat pricing of a national CHAIN is assinine. Labor is part of overhead. No tewo McDonalds (or any other chain) have exactly the same overhead.

The same argument could be made about energy prices... this McDonalds pays more for electricity than that McDonalds, but has the same prices. Hence energy costs do not affect prices. QED.

Look for honest people who speak in statements, not propagandists who speak in seemingly rhetorical questions and assertion by implication.

[Orsino]

19. Link for FBers:

https://www.facebook.com/MinimumWageRaise