Thursday, June 19, 2014

Ronald McDonald's War Against Wages

Is Burger Flipping really worth THAT?


Everyone basically at one point in their life started out at minimum wage at a job somewhere. Speaking from experience, I was making anywhere between 6 something and 7 something my years at Sky Sox only having my wage change due to laws being passed in Colorado raising the minimum wage for workers. It was easy for me to fight and continue to ask for the wage to increase because I was part of that population making the minimum even though year after year I continued to exceed what someone with minimum skills had for working ability. It felt as though that because of the minimum wage, my company may have felt that they did not have to pay me more since low pay was regulated by government. One major issue going on in today;s society that has become more and more public is the minimum wage fight against McDonalds. A group has been fighting to the the rate up to $15 an hour. The problem is they do not necessarily see the implications of what this sort of hike in pay would bring.
Hazlitt argues that you cannot distribute more wealth than that is created. The problem more recently is that the sales of Mcdonalds have been slowly decreasing. Increasing customer disapproval and an ever-changing menu has had a negative effect on sales over the past year. The group fighting for a higher minimum wage doesn't take into count the diminishing returns from the company. With a higher wage, you would expect the company to higher fewer workers in order to be able to afford them. Another point Hazlitt makes is that it is unnecessary for people to expect higher wages when for their specific market they make above what the average is. It is not reasonable for workers to expect 15 dollars an hour flipping burgers when other people make less doing more specialized things. Companies are not out to hurt their employees lives, but they are not expected to provide such a high wage for a small job so that they can make a normal living like those that have specific careers. It is agreed globally that the United States has quite a low minimum wage compared to the world which has led to President Obama fighting for 10 dollars an hour, it is not reasonable to have it raised to 15 dollars an hour at this point.

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