this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024

192 points (99.0% liked)

News

23200 readers

3036 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

rjc@lemmy.world

Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

Blackbeard@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

jeffw@lemmy.world

192

California fast-food workers’ minimum wage win stirs up old economic debate (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Business groups claim hard-fought $20 hourly wage victory will cause reduced hours, layoffs and price hikes – critics say otherwise

As fast-food workers celebrated a pivotal wage increase to $20 an hour in California last week, an old economic debate was awakened by business groups and others claiming the increase will wind up hurting workers through reduced hours and layoffs, hurt customers with price hikes, and harm the franchise owners of fast food restaurants.

Their critics are not so sure.

The hard-fought wage increase to $20 an hour from California’s current minimum wage, $16 an hour, was a compromise to initial demands of $22 an hour with annual wage increases. Representatives of fast-food workers and the fast food industry came to a deal to avoid what would have been a costly ballot initiative over the passage and signing of the California fast food sector bill last year.

“Frontline workers like me organized, went on strike, and fought to pass a historic law that raises our wages and gives us a seat at table with some of the biggest fast food corporations in the world,” said Anjelica Hernandez, a McDonald’s worker in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years. “Even though we are the engine of a billion-dollar industry, too many of us struggle to keep with rent, our bills and the rising cost of living.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 37 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Dredging up an old article because this argument is also old:

McD's workers in Denmark are paid $22/hr + 6 wks paid vacation.

One argument that is frequently brought up against the raising of the minimum wage to $15 is the suggestion that it will have a knock-on effect and the prices at affordable fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and Taco Bell will also substantially increase.

In rebuke, many use the price of a Big Mac in Denmark as proof that such claims are unwarranted. On social media, a number of Twitter users state that the cost of a Big Mac is around $5.15, compared to $4:80 in the U.S.—even with the vastly different staff wages.

https://www.newsweek.com/minimum-wage-15-denmark-big-mac-mcdonalds-1573414

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Big Macs are $10 in the northeast U.S.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say they cost $10, but they're definitely charging $10 for them.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

8.29 big mac. 12.19 for the meal. 3.49 hashbrowns.

No deals no sales. Been this way since at least covid.

Now then again the local diners burger is 13 bucks and one step nicer the burgers hit 15-18 and any nicer you lose sides at that cost.

But that said every news and economy article talking about big macs and mcdonalds prices, even as recent at January 2024 say Big Macs are $5-6.

So prices are legitimately up, but we are being lied to as to how much and why. The measurements appear to be intentionally off.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I've been out of the loop on fast food prices for a while. Didn't realize it had gotten that bad.

After covid, I realized I hadn't eaten fast food for about a year and decided to keep that trend going. The one time I had to stop somewhere to eat (late 2021 I think?), it was more expensive than I remembered and also kind of gross. Not sure if it was always gross and I just didn't notice or if something changed, but it definitely wasn't worth it.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

You’re not missing much. I recently had to eat fast food after years of not, by poor planning in a road trip. What do you do when rest areas only serve junk and you’re traveling late when the local places are closed? It seems like I paid about $50 for two McDonalds meals. Way over priced and horrible food, definitely not worth it

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

The last time I ended up at McDonald's with my kids it cost as much as a real restaurant.

[–] audiomodder@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 months ago

This argument has always been absolutely ridiculous. McDonald’s doesn’t set prices based on their costs. McDonald’s sets their prices based on what people are willing to pay. Why would they charge $4.80 when people would be willing to pay $5.15? That would be an extra $.35 profit if they charged more with no increase in costs.

While this means that there will be less profits, the worst case scenario is that fast food places determine that they can’t make profits and will shut down. They’ll use this as an excuse to bump their prices to more than compensate for their lost profits.