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Don't forget company leaderships and stock owners taking more and more profit out of companies than ever.
Take 100% of their salaries and profits and it would make a negligible, likely unnoticeable difference in this issue.
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McDonald’s is a franchise. Franchise owners bear the burden of employee and goods costs.
Franchise owner also bear the burden of franchise fees, which pay for these exorbitant executive compensation packages.
I’m trying to be illustrative through glibness here, but… If consumers can’t afford the prices required to pay a restaurant’s labor living wages, then perhaps they’re not viable customers of that restaurant. Minimum wages above the market-set rate are a form of price control. The distorting effects of price controls—in this case, contributing to shortages of low-margin restaurant meals—are economically inevitable.
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It is quite the juggling act: you have employees demanding to be paid more, the cost of goods/inflation steadily rising, while customers wanting everything to be cheaper. Something has to give somewhere, the challenging part would be to know where.
Markets are the best mechanism ever invented to resolve that challenge to maximum aggregate benefit.
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Anecdotally... No they are not. My middle school daughter says many of her friends just eat ramen packets every night.
So even crappier food. The people have to be blamed for this at some point. Lower income Indian and East Asian families cook fresh food every night that probably costs less than $0.50 a plate. Beans, lentils, rice, eggs, pork and chicken can take you very far.
Btw that portion you mention won't be 0.5$, more like 2-3$ if if balanced and healthy enough. Tons of rice as is still very common in south east Asia ain't very healthy neither. But its sorta proven once folks start to cook for themselves more, they cook healthier than preprocessed junk food. And I don't mean some exquisite stuff, spending even 10-20 mins ever second evening can provide enough for whole family.
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We should consume a lot less beef. Wages haven't caught up with inflation in a long while, I'd hope McDonalds paying more would trigger a nationwide increase in wages (I know, too optimistic).
I'm not sure that's true about wage growth, especially at the low end: https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/ > In stark contrast to prior decades, low-wage workers experienced dramatically fast real [inflation-adjusted] wage growth between 2019 and 2023
Meanwhile inflation over that period is significantly higher at 19.18%.
So, no, low end wage growth has not kept up with inflation.
It's very odd there are few comments in the realm of, "Maybe McDonald's has grown to be bad at 'fast-fooding.'"
Food still took 15 minutes, fries were cold, the main meal was nice but was overall disappointing for the eye-watering cost compared to days gone by.
And a few guys collecting for delivery which has split their focus from in-resturant customers.
Can see why people have moved on.
It's very odd there are few comments in the realm of, "Maybe McDonald's has grown to be bad at 'fast-fooding.'"
Yes. You can still get over 2000 calories at Taco Bell for $8 (this would be five of the Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito, my personal favorite). Even a Cheesy Double Beef burrito for the meat lovers can get you over 2000 calories for just over $11 for four. And their box meals will throw in a drink for a decent price. You can spend a lot more, but you don't have to. This isn't meant as a Taco Bell commercial, just a com…
I’m trying to be illustrative through glibness here, but… If consumers can’t afford the prices required to pay a restaurant’s labor living wages, then perhaps they’re not viable customers of that restaurant. Minimum wages above the market-set rate are a form of price control. The distorting effects of price controls—in this case, contributing to shortages of low-margin restaurant meals—are economically inevitable.
They successfully converted from a neighborhood fast food shop into a new chain of automats with almost no staff once touchscreens got cheap enough and the necessary software could be suitably amortized. They ditched the employees, minimized community features like playplaces and tables, dropped the low margin dollar menu that many poorer people relied on, and focused on getting higher-margin products with better photography to busy professionals with brand attachment.
Trying to turn this into the tired debate about minimum wage just distracts from a discussion about what's actually happening to this brand.