Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 753 posts

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#191

Post by larrywright »

larrywright wrote: post #176
jellicle wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you doubled the wages of every McDonald's worker, burger prices would have to go up by 30 cents or so to compensate, if I recall the math properly.

If you’re referring to that Huffpost article from a few years ago, that got pulled because their math was faulty. It was based on assumptions about costs that weren’t rooted in reality, namely that the ingredients were the largest expense in the cost of the food. It’s not, it’s actually the labor, which is why increasing the employee wages has a disproportionate impact on the cost of the menu items.

Correction: I said that it got pulled, but as I recall they updated the article to reflect the inaccuracy in the original piece.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#192

Post by mulmen »

WorldMaker wrote: post #173
x2f10 wrote: post #18

Her job is already going away; McDonald's around me have already replaced cashiers with kiosks. Unionizing and requiring $15/hr + full benefits is only going to accelerate McDonald's automation plans. Is the answer to fight for $15/hr or is the answer to go back to school, apply to more jobs, and/or go into a trade? Honest question.

An interesting reminder: kiosks don't eliminate the labor of the cashier, they pass the labor on to the consumer. The same amount of labor overall is still happening in that building, just more of it is unpaid.

I have always done the work of expressing my desired food item. Without a kiosk that desire gets repeated by another person to a computer. With a kiosk that repetition does not happen, the order is directly expressed to the machine. It appears to me there is 50% less labor with a kiosk.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#193

Post by mrguyorama »

justinsaccount wrote: post #28

> It’s 8 p.m. and my scheduled shift is over, but they asked me to stay later > The bus stops running at 10 p.m. on Sunday, but McDonald's asked me to stay until close at 1 a.m. They asked me to stay because they need my help. Thats not a job, that's an abusive relationship.

An employer's desire is to pay/benefit you as little as you will possibly take. It is ALWAYS an adversarial relationship. No matter how much you like your boss, someone up the chain is trying to screw you, somehow

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#194

Post by analyst74 »

Miner49er wrote: post #70
throwaway07Ju19 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S. there is one presidential candidate championing a UBI of $1000/mo. It would be paid for by a VAT tax. Typically VAT tax is unpopular because it is regressive. But the UBI more than compensates for the extra tax burden.

Yang's implementation is very regressive. You have the regressive VAT tax, but then you also have the fact that you are cutting government benefits then giving everyone $1000. So the poor just end up net poorer. Example: Now: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in benefits = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $0 in benefits = $50,000 UBI: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $62,000 The poorer perso…

You picked a perfect example where it seems bad, but consider an opposite one:

Now:

$12,000 a year + $12,000 in benefits = $24,000

$24,000 a year + $0 in benefits = $24,000

$50,000 a year + $0 in benefits = $50,000

UBI:

$12,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $24,000

$24,000 a year + $12,000 in benefits = $36,000

$50,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $62,000

Also keep in mind that the more well off people will end up paying more VAT because they spend more. VAT can also be tweaked to not tax on necessities like basic groceries/etc.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#195

Post by ceejayoz »

jumbopapa wrote: post #179
ceejayoz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing dumb doesn't really help the argument. If someone says "c'mon, it's not that hard" they don't mean it's difficult , and I suspect you know that.

My larger point is that the formula for improving your situation isn't that hard. You may endure hardship on your path, but for many it is within reach.

> My larger point is that the formula for improving your situation isn't that hard.

My point is that's frequently false.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#196

Post by mrguyorama »

larrywright wrote: post #176
jellicle wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you doubled the wages of every McDonald's worker, burger prices would have to go up by 30 cents or so to compensate, if I recall the math properly.

If you’re referring to that Huffpost article from a few years ago, that got pulled because their math was faulty. It was based on assumptions about costs that weren’t rooted in reality, namely that the ingredients were the largest expense in the cost of the food. It’s not, it’s actually the labor, which is why increasing the employee wages has a disproportionate impact on the cost of the menu items.

Pappa John's own previous CEO claimed it would cost 13 cents per pizza more to provide all his employees health insurance.

He cited this as a reason to not give his employees health insurance

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#197

Post by michaelmrose »

Miner49er wrote: post #87
hisnameismanuel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep - the key thing you're missing is that Yang is going to allow people to choose whether they want to keep their benefits or switch to UBI.

How does that change my point though? Either way they end up net poorer. If you're poor and don't take the $1000, you are the same and everyone else is $1000 richer. This makes you effectively $1000 poorer. Yang actually says UBI will save money compared to benefits. So if you pick UBI you're even more than $1000 poorer, if he's right.

There is no particular reason to believe that increases in costs would exactly match the benefits granted leaving you 1000 dollars poorer even if ssdi income was better than ubi. Furthermore ubi would not be negatively effected by a spouse earning money in a way that actually punishes families for working nor would it require suing the government for 5-10 years while they pretend your family member isn't disabled.

On net the only people who come off worse are unmarried individuals receiving ssdi who are too young for social security retirement income.

Average ssdi income is around 1200 10 million people are on ssdi aprox 6 million under 65 45% in the overall US population are unmarried.

One could reasonably suppose at least 2-3 million out of 327 million will make no more money and will see slightly to somewhat higher costs. This could be corrected by cola.

In comparison the bottom 25% is 82 million strong and will benefit substantially as will the next quartile to a lesser extent another 82 millions

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#198

Post by sokoloff »

jumbopapa wrote: post #90
davidcelis wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> McDonald's offers a 401k plan with up to 7% match. Even if you took the 10% early withdrawal penalty this is money in your pocket. This woman is literally living paycheck to paycheck, and your suggestion is to... put money into a 401k? That simply isn't an option for people living in poverty like this. > Gain knowledge, skills, and have a good work ethic and it is not that hard to get ahead in America. This is a re…

I'm saying she puts it in and takes it out as soon as she can. This gives her more disposable income. The only issue I see is the time it takes her to make the first distribution, but then she shouldn't have any issues with lagging income if she budgets it properly. It's not that out of touch. She doesn't have to work at McDonald's. I know there's opportunities out there that pay better and are in LCOL areas, but the…

How does putting in $100, getting a $7 match, and immediately pulling it out and paying a $10.70 penalty on the withdrawal leave her with more disposable income? (She avoids income tax on the $100, but then pays tax on the withdrawal so if they happen in the same year, that’s also a wash.)

I literally can’t see how this tactic helps her in any way.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#199

Post by michaelmrose »

x2f10 wrote: post #18

Her job is already going away; McDonald's around me have already replaced cashiers with kiosks. Unionizing and requiring $15/hr + full benefits is only going to accelerate McDonald's automation plans. Is the answer to fight for $15/hr or is the answer to go back to school, apply to more jobs, and/or go into a trade? Honest question.

How as an adult do you do this while investing all your energy in staying afloat

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#200

Post by Humdeee »

Ancalagon wrote: post #162
larnmar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think the solution is emigration. There are places in the world where you can make a living without any particular skill set, but I don’t think the US, or any other first-world country, should really be among them. The US needs immigration reform to bring more high-skilled people into the country, but it also needs emigration reform to find new homes for people who can’t necessarily make a reasonable livin…

Wow this is incredibly dystopian to think about. Just imagine, you're born into a country that by no will of your own becomes more and more expensive. You're given an inadequate education to function in this country, so you're forced to work menial jobs to make ends meet, and hope that by some lottery stroke of luck you will somehow develop the time or the money or the skills to have a good life. BUT if you don't get…

Can you imagine writing your 12th grade anti-deportation exam, and looking around the room and knowing that the lowest ~15% of your peers will be asked to leave the country?

I don't even want to think of the new suicide rate in that world.

Post reply on HN