Fast-food workers strike nationwide in protest against wages

Agreed. But they're socially at the bottom of the pyramid, and generally, that's where the problems of our situation start rumbling from...the bottom up.

 

Bull(*)(*)(*)(*). Its already been proven that inflation occurs independent of a raise in the min wage.

Keep you lies to yourself.

 

Have to disagree, this has been from the top down.

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proven by who?

 

I see that you mean that the disgruntled workers started from the top down, but I was referring to the blowback...it's going to come from the lowest people first. And it's a bad thing when you expand the amount of the 'lowest guys' and then (*)(*)(*)(*) them off at the same time. As I've maintained, they're reflecting the feelings I think many of the working class like them have, regardless of pay. It's like a little itch on your leg that just won't go away, the feeling that you're getting screwed day in and day out, being milked and squeezed of all of your worth like a sponge without remorse or real compensation for your value. It just so happens, that the people who were striking feel it the hardest because of the cost of living doesn't meet the lowest wages people are paying. But I agree with you, the root cause of this turmoil is definitely from the top. It's like an echo...the top said 'f u!' and now it's hit the opposite wall and the echo is coming back now.

 

There are now robots which can take the order, make the order and serve the order.....and wash the windows and floors in any fast food joint. The only reason franchise owners haven't gone virtually 100% to robotics is b/c the 'locals' would vandalize the joints.
Better the keep a few 'locals' working for more than the robots cost.....even at min. wages then have to wonder when the next 'flash mob' was going to loot your business.

 

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How is it the bussinesses pissing them off? Oh, they not overpaying them? That makes sense. I don't know about you but when I ask for a raise or a promotion, I have to prove I deserve it and are bringing value to the company. If my reason is because I need more money to live better, that would be a laugh.

I would be fine if a business chooses to pay people more in order to attract a better employee like Chikfila does, but when the govt forces them or employees have unsubstantiated demands, that's B.S.

 

This plays into the corporate game, though and doesn't serve the people or economy to think like this. It only serves the owners and only in the short term.

 

Owners don't owe people a job... much less a certain salary. If the min wage was $15, we'd quickly become a nation of burger flippers. Might work for the mouth breathers but most Americans dont expect to make more than their skills are worth. Anybody see striking fast food workers being interviewed? These people are lucky to make more than $5 hr. I'd hate to be their manager.

 

Pay grade. Those who spend their days in a daze shouldn't expect more than $2.50, while those who show a bit more ambition should earn accordingly.
Not just at fast food places, but everywhere. Its called 'earn your pay'. If you don't give a rip, why should you get payed?

 

Wait what? So you think an employer should pay what an employee demands? That sort of works when the employee has skills the employer needs, but explain that scenario when your skills are equal to any teenage kid on earth? I don't know about you but what I demand is a fair salary related to my skills, experience compared to all those in a similar area. I don't get paid the same as people living in LA, but that's because I choose to olive where it's cheaper and I wouldn't expect to get paid the same, since it wouldn't make sense. But I'm far from minimum wage, a temporary job, which doesn't follow the same rules as skilled career work. How many salary negotiations have you been a part of because I would love to be a fly othe wall in that conversation. "Ok, so you would like a raise? That's fine, show me your reasons. I just want more money!!!! That's your reason? Get out of my office."

A doctor in a small town doesn't make the same as a doctor in NYC. But its not unskilled labor. MINIMUM wage.

 

Exactly. Minimum wage for minimum skills. Want more $, get more skills. Duh.

 

First, you don't get to talk about me. You don't get to make assumptions about me and you don't get to try and minimize me to prop up your argument.

Next, let's look at the word 'unskilled'. This seems to imply that there's no training necessary to learn the cash register, to learn how to not choke someone out when they're rude to you at the counter, that the deep fryers operate themselves, that you know exactly how much salt to throw around on the fries because they taught you this in grade school, etc. You're implying that within one day, a person preparing the food knows exactly what goes on each and every menu item within one day and is effortless. It's making a lot of assumptions when you claim unskilled, so how about we call the job what it is, technically, which is entry level. I know that scares a lot of you with 'entry level' jobs that require college and previous experience, doesn't it? But considering that you can start out as a line cook at a fast food restaurant and end up owning your own franchise, it IS entry level. So can we agree on this?

Continuing, your current employment doesn't need any discussion here. Neither does how I negotiate my pay or whether I have that discussion except to the fact that we're all getting the short end of the wage stick. This short end just happens to be shorter for the people who are stuck at these really crappy service jobs which seem to be the only real jobs across all states that are the real so-called 'economic recovery' when you hear about unemployment going down. Again, these jobs are being filled by mostly adults, lots of them college graduates, maybe even some with experience and got laid off with no hope in sight of being hired in a similar position, forced to work this because overall even adjacent industries that might hire them on chance in a better economy don't want anything to do with them. And some of these jobs pay *less* than minimum wage. Such as waiting tables, where you have to kiss ass all day in the hopes someone might leave you that dollar you need to break even with the minimum wage standard because its a slow day.

The simple fact that this is an open/shut case to so many people is perplexing, as if you cannot remember clearly what you put up with and for so little. It's almost as if it was a primer to get you to think the way you do today, that was your first step in becoming institutionalized to believe you are simply a tool for the company that 'so graciously hired you'. But it's a 2 way street. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. You pay me well, I'll give you my all. But to give your all when you're not being paid to give your all? No. No one in this thread outside of those self employed business owners...none of you at all are getting paid your worth. None of you. And yet you still want to blame the victims...it's definitely a sickness...a social sickness we've been engineered to believe this garbage.

 

Some people will stay with a lie no matter the truth. A minimum wage hike may lose some jobs in the beginning but consumer demand will bring more jobs. You must be happy that we taxpayers pay to help the people screwed because their employer doesn't care about them.

We had minimum wage increases and a strong middle class in the 60s and 70s. Since 1981, the buying power of the middle class has shrunk. And, yes, minimum wage affects the earning power of the middle class. Our one and only domino theory that is true. 40.28% of wage earners are making less than $20,000. That is bad for our economy.

 

If you are getting the short end if the stick go open a competing business. Work for years for no money, take the risk have your name on the insurance and put your credit on the line. You deal with the attorneys the accountants and the regulators. You chase down the initial business with no track record and regular customer list. Then let me know about how your employees are getting the short end of the stick.

 

Middle class growth slowed down starting then, teen unemployment slowed down.

Raise the minimum wage high enough and you can add them to the unemployment rosters too. As unemployment goes up wages go down as people get desperate for a job. Hours get cut etc, but worse teens are pushed out of entry level jobs, adults are back to entry level work and working less hours so the employer can keep labor costs stable. We don't need another 1% loss in a bad economy. We need employment. This next generation hasn't been working for awhile and living with their parents for awhile. You are going to end up with a whole generation of social welfare state dependents once their parents can't provide for them anymore.

Why say since 1981? Was it lower in 2006 then it was in 1980? It has only shot down since democrats took over congress and their housing scheme failed miserably.

 

You do not qualify.

That GI bill gave us our strong middle class. What do we have today? Especially when the only jobs are low paying jobs, usually part-time to avoid paying benefits.

Why? Because you say so? Do we have a free market where people are paid what they are worth? Or do we have a market controlled by employers?

 

That GI Bill line is BS. We were already the most powerful and richest nation on earth before it. Women entering the workforce is the source of most of our household income gains between the war and the 80s. Then big Reagan growth, Gingrich era growth, and stagnation all in between. The worst time or the poor of course being the years since the war on poverty. Never before have so few as a % risen out of poverty and never before has so much been spent.

You have a free market to negotiate what you earn. In some case the employee is not free to negotiate, so no, we don't have a free labor market. We have a free labor market except union favoritism and cronyism.

 

What you don't get is that many deserve to earn more than they are paid. Who the hell determine that people are only worth $7.25, let alone $2.50? How can anyone be worth $72,500 per hour and someone else not worth $9.25 per hour?

Too many people look at their own salary and say "Well, I am doing more work than a hamburger flipper" Why not turn that around to "I am doing more work than what I am paid." The middle class is not making enough but they complain that the poor are making too much in relationship to them.

The real problem is that all workers are getting screwed but many workers don't fight against that.

 

Honestly, is that working today? Are you paid what you are worth?

 

Of course you have your link to prove this or are you speaking from inside the bubble.

Okay, you are talking from the bubble.

Because the graphs you and I have seen tell us those facts:

 

Those graphs say exactly what I said. Wage I come has stagnated since the war on poverty. Reagan didn't raise the minimum wage, income went up in those years.

Along side the household income graph can you post the divorce rate please? Married couple households make more money for obvious reasons.

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Maybe the employee should decide what they are worth when they apply for the job. Then the employer who has to pay them can agree or disagree?

 

Everyone makes wages 'comparable to the cost of living in the communities they live'. This is why we have different minimum wages and different pay scales in different areas of the USA.

If you understand bell curve data, do you agree that no matter what the minimum wage or living wage might be, that we will always have the same distribution of worker's wages we have today...ie. 25% will be on the lower end of wages, 50% will have moderate wages, and 25% will have income on the higher side. IMO if you 'arbitrarily' increase the low-end wages, you will eventually increase all wages, so given a little time those previously on the lower end of pay will still be on the lower end of pay.

The key to this discussion and what most people refuse to understand, is what exactly is it which differentiates between the bottom 25% and the middle 50%? However this differentiation is defined is what the lower end workers need to take action on in order to move into the middle 50%. Failure to take any action assures the current lower 25% will always be in the lower 25%...no matter how much government and politics interferes with the private sector and economy...

 

"By giving veterans money for tuition, living expenses, books, supplies and equipment, the G.I. Bill effectively transformed higher education in America. Before the war, college had been an option for only 10-15 percent of young Americans, and university campuses had become known as a haven for the most privileged classes. By 1947, in contrast, vets made up half of the nation's college enrollment; three years later, nearly 500,000 Americans graduated from college, compared with 160,000 in 1939."

"The G.I. Bill became one of the major forces that drove an economic expansion in America that lasted 30 years after World War II"

"Low interest home loans enabled millions of American families to move out of urban centers and buy or build homes outside the city, changing the face of the suburbs. Over 50 years, the impact of the G.I. Bill was enormous, with 20 million veterans and dependents using the education benefits and 14 million home loans guaranteed, for a total federal investment of $67 billion"

 

The reason this 100% political issue is never resolved is because there is no solution to this political issue...it's all politics!

Employers care very much for their employees...duh...because without employees there would be no employers.

From the day all of these people were born, they have been functioning in a private economy (if we ignore those with government assistance). All of them should understand that the more value a worker can provide the more wages the worker will earn. If anyone does not like their current economic situation, then that person must take steps to increase their value in the workplace. If they do this, work hard, avoid crime, seek education, etc. they will be rewarded. If they do nothing, and depend on their idiot politician, they will sustain their miserable lives forever. Unfortunately no one wants to talk about this...

 

How much is that per soldier? Pay was miserable back then for soldiers. I am not saying they shouldn't have been paid, I am arguing that is not what created the middle class. You have never seen me say soldiers should be paid less, quite the opposite if anything. The middle class had already existed. A degree without a strong economy to put it to use in is worth little. As today's grads are finding out, record high graduation too. Incomes are going down.