"I Can't Pay My Bills" - McDonald's Employees Furious As Company Renegs On Wage Hikes

When the initiative was first announced, McDonald's decision to raise its employees' wages to $1 above minimum wage (albeit only at corporate-owned stores, a minority of the company's total count) was hailed as a radical example of corporate accountability - a direct repudiation of the far-left notion that "quarterly capitalism" and employers accepting responsibility for their employees were mutually exclusive.

As any steely eyed realist might've expected, McDonald's widely lauded "wage hike" was little more than a publicity stunt. In the three years since McDonald's announced the wage hike in 2015, the firm has essentially frozen employee wages, often leaving them just a few cents above minimum wage, as Bloomberg has discovered.

McDonalds

But the company doesn't expect to experience any blowback from this decision: After all, McDonald's never said it was pegging employees' wages to $1 above minimum wage. The company, it appears, deliberately equivocated during its initial announced - and what's worse, nobody in the media has called the company out.

Until now, that is.

In Milpitas, California, north of San Jose, where the local minimum wage rose to $12 an hour on Jan. 1, several workers’ February paychecks show they received $12.35 or $12.45. In Los Angeles, where the minimum wage for large employers has been $12 since July, some checks show hourly pay of $12.69 or less.

Employees and members of the "Fight for $15" coalition - which had successfully pressured McDonald's to assent to the wage hike (or so we had thought) - are understandably angry at the company, possibly having planned to receive higher wages in the near future, and based some major financial decisions on that.

"They need to give us the dollar that they promised us," said one of those employees, Fanny Velazquez, who’s worked for the corporation for a decade. "I can’t pay my rent or my bills."

The Service Employees International Union - most likely the initial anonymous source who brought the story to Bloomberg - blasted the company in an on-the-record statement. It's also organizing workers to organize and exert whatever pressure they can.

The Fight For $15, a 6-year-old effort by the Service Employees International Union to organize fast food workers and secure more stringent wage laws, seized on the paychecks as evidence that the McDonald’s 2015 announcement was a “publicity stunt.”

"If McDonald’s wants to play semantics with its workers and continue to drive a race to the bottom instead of giving us real raises, it is going to continue losing workers to the growing number of employers who are leading the way to a better economy for all," said Betty Douglas, a McDonald’s worker in St. Louis, in a statement on behalf of the Fight for $15.

Fight For $15 criticized McDonald’s pay announcement from the start, because it didn’t apply to the majority of the chain’s stores, which are owned by franchisees, and didn’t meet the group’s signature demand of $15 hourly pay.

The group plans to launch a hotline Monday that workers can call to report their wages, and will hold rallies in three cities on Tuesday to press its case that workers need a union in order to hold the company accountable.

What's worse than McDonald's not following through with the wage hike, employees say, is that recent changes to McDonald's menu - primarily the "Experience the Future" suite of customizable menu options - have made the job harder.

Burger chains like McDonald’s are facing record-high turnover as workers depart for better jobs options in a tightening labor market. Last year, McDonald’s lagged behind peers like Wendy’s and Burger King in average drive-through times. Some employees complain that the chain’s "Experience of the Future," a suite of changes to menus, technology and food delivery, has meant performing more tasks without commensurate staffing expansions or pay increases.

"It’s going to get increasingly challenging to attract the talent you want into your business," Easterbrook said earlier this year, "and then you’ve got to work really hard through training and development to retain them."

Of course, that McDonald's did this shouldn't come as a surprise to any long-time Zero Hedge readers. The company has been rapidly adopting kiosks in its dining rooms that allow customers to order without interacting with a cashier. Analysts believe these machines will eventually lead to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of fast-food service jobs.

As we've said before, McDonald's employees, while you're agitating for a $15 minimum wage, don't forget to thank your corporate overlords when they fire you and your comrades and replace you with this guy...

John5

 

Comments

MATA HAIRY Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:11 Permalink

mcdonalds is learning from trump how to say one thing to appease the people and then do the exact opposite to please the rich and the establishment

edit--oh, look, the MAGAtards are voting me down! Hey, tards, I VOTED for trump, but I wised up...howcum you have not done the same?

Ophiuchus The_Juggernaut Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:35 Permalink

May I suggest going Galt?

Real men are choosing to reject the cacophony (Emphasis added) that's being forced upon them which tells them to be anything but MEN. What the Satanists want is for you to accept your slavery, to throw away your souls and toil away. Real men have been going Galt for at least 18 years. 

When the boys quit whining like little girls and take a stand against the destruction that's being fostered upon them, then men will return to being men, but not until. 

It's not going to happen so prepare.............

In reply to by The_Juggernaut

Professor Fate Stan522 Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:38 Permalink

I call "bullshit" on this entire minimum wage thing.  Based on the number of tattoos and gold teeth prominent on the employees working the pickup window at my McDonalds, I say McDonalds employees have a plethora of discretionary income.  Additionally, I have yet to see one that looks malnourished. 

Fate the Magnificent
"Push the Button, Max"

In reply to by Stan522

vega74 Stan522 Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:43 Permalink

For some, McDonald's is still a starter job.  Increasingly it's becoming a survival job for many others.  Quitting isn't an option for most people since they have no savings and live paltry paycheck to paycheck.  The peasants, arguably the majority, are trapped.  And the powers that be know this, exploit this, and use it as leverage for their advantage.  No judgment-just sayin'; it is what it is.

In reply to by Stan522

Stan522 vega74 Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:58 Permalink

I'm not denying the fact that there are those who make this a career. What I am saying is that there are starter jobs that allow the unskilled a place to get an initial job and then move up from there as they learn and prove their worth. We have made this a career choice by those who support wage laws and then you get the indignant attitudes from those employed that follows.....

In reply to by vega74

The Ram Stan522 Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:52 Permalink

Sad state of affairs, but I bet this person will father/mother 2-4 children, who of course, will be new slaves in the system.  The 'poor' have not ever understood that they have fed the cycle of poverty by having children.  If you are not at least solidly upper middle class, then don't have kids unless you want to subject them to McDonald's level work.  Hell, even upper middle class families produce new slaves...they just happen to be a little higher order slaves.  The upper middle class slaves get to come to cubicles and small offices every day and don't have to contend with the french fry lard or whatever they use.  I am happy to have not had children...I refuse to give the overlords new slaves, even upper income slaves.

In reply to by Stan522

wetwipe Pandelis Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:20 Permalink

TBH these plebs should be grateful for what they can get, most are not worth the minimum wage. Most don't give a shit, to them its a sort of adult day care where they pay you. If the minimum wage was abolished what would 'the market' think would be a fair remuneration. My guess would be less than minimum wage.

Sooner or later those with a low IQ will need to be culled as they are responsible for much of what is wrong in society today.

 

 

In reply to by Pandelis

Kidbuck Pandelis Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:25 Permalink

Kidbuck once took a minimum wage second job working nights as a janitor. The first year the additional income taxes came due I discovered that income taxes and travel expenses ate up 2/3 of what I made working at the janitor job. On top of that since the 2nd job didn't withhold taxes and I didn't have any cash laying around to pay the taxes and the IRS froze my bank accounts and I had to sell my truck and had to get a third job to pay the back taxes.

In reply to by Pandelis

earleflorida Pandelis Mon, 04/02/2018 - 12:56 Permalink

they all have two jobs, (stocking shelves or produce at local supermarkets whom actually treat these people better..., [but], they never can surpass the 35 hr. threshold for benefits ).

a lot (fast food chains) of their employees are [contracted workers] from south America & eastern Europe whom work their asses off,... but, are grateful to find employment as their sovereign countries are in financial flux having been 'Economic Hitman'd' to death! [OR] 'americaniz'd demockrazy`died' 

In reply to by Pandelis