MacD';s may have to resort to democracy - heaven forbid, a wage increase!

Looks like Macd's days of slave labor are on their way out.http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26442618

Greed mongers considering a pay raise, for the exploited.

About time?

 

I see self-ordering at McDonald's in the near future..... All minimum wage increases do is make automation more affordable....

 

Lotta ifs in this story from the BBC. More like wishful lib thinking than actual news.

 

LoL Liberals are so naïve.

Did you read the article? From your article:

"But it warned that higher wages might impact its profit margins if it cannot offset them by raising prices as well. "

So if they cannot increase prices on EVERYBODY else, it will impact it's profit margins.

Do you know what "impact profit margins" means? It means layoffs. It means franchises being shut down and entire groups of employees losing their jobs. It means decreased hours and increased automation.

Don't get all pissed off when it happens. We TOLD you it was going to happen and you people did it anyway. You'll get what you deserve.

 

Same thing is said every time the minimum wage goes up, funny thing it really does not happen on any large scale.

 

Uhhh yeah actually it does. The minimum wage has not increased at any large scale. The increase in lost jobs, increased prices and all the other problems are going to be proportional to the increase in minimum wage. .10 won't cause too much. $2.00 will cause far more.

Regardless, there's a point at which you increase the amount you are paying above the value of the employee to the company. At that point the consequences begin to get exponentially worse.

 

Infinite loop:

10 EMPLOYEE: OMG, I can't afford a hamburger on the wages I get.
20 GOV: McD Employees can't afford a hamburger, we must raise minimum wage!
30 McD: OMG, we're losing money on hamburgers, we must raise the price!
40 GOTO 10

 

EXACTLY

 

A simple programmatic expression of runaway inflation.

 

Most employees work for franchise owners, not McDonald's. I read this as "How are we going to raise the $1 Menu to the $1.50 menu without upsetting too many customers?"

 

I am not a business pro and yes this is the BBC, but guessing the report was a SEC filing .

 

You don't understand a thing about runaway inflation.

 

Perhaps not. Would you care to offer a comment of substance, or is ad hominem the thought of the day?

 

McDonalds' franchises might have to shut down? How is less crap a bad thing?

 

Sure.

The idea that a small bump in minimum wage will cause runaway inflation is... garbage. Flat out garbage.

The corporate fear of minimum wage hikes is that it will eat into profit, or cause them to raise prices. They know the economy is too fragile to raise prices.

 

BINGO!!!

 

50 Consumer Let's eat somewhere else.

 

So, what do businesses do about the increased cost of minimum wage hikes, if not raise prices?

 

Cut back on CEO salaries or payouts to shareholders.


The reason this is even a discussion among McDonalds is that purchasing power of low income workers directly affects their own bottom line!

 

Naw, the cost of automation goes up in time as well since parts and manufacturing costs go up every year.

 

Computers have gotten cheaper over the last 20 years. Lots cheaper. Do you see that trend reversing?

 

I'm talking about hardware in particular, the mechanics part of it; motors, metal needed, non-computer electrical components, etc. Eventually computers will start to rise as costs to manufacture them increase over time. Nothing stays the same forever.

 

Exactly, and a canny businessman might consider narrowing his margins as well. There's no law that demands a retail price hike after a wage increase-which would likely amount to very little anyhow, and certainly not enough to adversely affect business.

 

There are nothing needed to automate order taking and eliminate front counter jobs all together, except touch-screen computers, and those have steadily gotten much much cheaper over the last decade. Some info. If you price labor high enough, McD's will, for sure, eliminate those jobs for touch screens. In fact, they already have the touch screens, all they have to do is spin them around to face the customer. I would think it pretty hard to believe they aren't already moving towards this.

 

So who cooks the burgers?