Originally Posted by
Officer Barbrady
What about the other people earning $15 an hour now? Don't they want a raise now? Simple economics, minimum wage goes to $15 an hour, the cost of products go up (no I'm not saying they would double, but doubling minimum wage would increase food prices by a lot)
So if they raise minimum wage to $15 an hour does that really help everybody? It's just going to cost the price of food products to go up even for the people working minimum wage therefor their back in square 1. And the truth to the fact is, if they want $15 an hour there is CERTAINLY someone who will do it for half the price..
So sure, raise minimum wage, but you won't be helping them any, and then more jobs will be exporting to other countries. Let's face it, for instance why would a company want to hire 500 factory workers and pay them $15 an hour (and soon have to provide health care or opt out and pay a fine) when it's hell of a lot cheaper for a country with a lower minimum wage to do it?
Ever hear of the saying:
Everyone wants someone experienced, but no one wants to give experience.. This is currently what's happening.. If everyone at McDonalds were to quit, who'd train the new guys?
Well here's some "McFood" for thought and why this will never be the case.
1. I started out working in a grocery for 8.00 an hour and trust me, it was not the best thing being a teenage butcher and all the "other" tasks that come along with it for 8.00 an hour! Also note that what some managers used to do was send me on break or clock me out at the hr.45 mark so they won't have to pay the full hour or overtime if need be.. After I clocked out, I'd still have to clean up w/e mess I made so that is pretty bad.. I'd also have to bring extra shoes and clothes after hosing down the blades and floor with chemicals and stuff.. I had to learn WHIMIS and all that other stuff such as every kind of meat there is! Identifying the liver, gizzard, heart, kidneys, arteries, everything! Not to mention understanding exactly what part each customer wants.. Anyway, after I left the job, guess what? All the other students who worked there realized it ain't worth 8.00 an hour and they all quit. 3 weeks later, manager calls me offering 10.00$ an hour because no one would apply for the meat section. Everyone wanted bakery or deli section positions. Even at 10.00 when minimum was 8.00, no one including myself would take the job.. Guess what my friend now gets paid in the meat section? 25$ an hour. That's right.. 25$!! Plus benefits if you stay longer than 6 months. Even got promoted and everything and begged him to stay lol. He's still there but it's a hell of a lot more than 8.00 considering all the crap we had to do. I'm glad he's making a decent wage now though. You have to know what it is like to have customers bitch and spit and throw down stuff on purpose to piss you off.
And this franchise grocery is known as No-Frills here in Canada.. I'm sure everyone who's been to a mcdonalds has seen a nasty customer they wanted to punch in the face for being rude to a cashier or purposely throwing a drink on the floor to annoy them.
Anyway, roughly 1 year later after I left, minimum wage is 10.50$ an hour and food prices have only gone up a little bit more than they were. So even with the increase in food prices, the wage increase is more than the food increase and so, it is easier for whoever works for these wages to live. Increasing minimum wage does increase food prices and job outsourcing but that's due to greed. Lets say that minimum increases 50%, that doesn't mean food prices are going to increase 50% too. It'll prob increase 15-30%. Still leaving the workers with a little extra to spend. That spending will help the economy in the end. There is no need for Yohojo or anyone else to say they don't deserve it because they do.
Most of them are STUDENTS and it may be their first job. Good luck outsourcing McDonalds cashiers and burger flippers and w/e else to another country..
2. Just because someone worked in minimum wage doesn't give ANYONE else the right to belittle them.
Everyone needs a first job at some point. However, I have a friend who is really good at programming.. Guess what? Every programming job wants a degree. After getting a degree/recommendation they tell him "
You are over qualified for this job, we are looking for someone that will learn something at our company." And so, he removes lots off his resume and gets hired for way less than the degree is worth. Mind you having to pay off student loans with a job that doesn't pay because you have a degree is garbage. Oh and trust me, this has happened to me so many times now that I completely wiped off half the languages I know off my resume or replaced them with other stuff.
The reason a company says this is because with a degree, they have to pay you MORE money than without and so, they rather take interns for free or pay little or anyone without a degree and offer them a temporary or 6-month position/contract.
So basically, a degree/recommendation is sorta useless and just there to show that you know something but doesn't give you any guarantees or a higher chance than the next guy. In fact, most of the time it gives you less of a chance because no one wants to pay more. Thing is, without a degree or recommendation, you have no chance of even having your resume looked at either.
So either way it is a lose-lose situation most of the time and they'd rather computerise everything for free labour.
3. Half the guys at McDonalds have been doing cash for so long, they can count and do math far better than a lot of "high" paid idiots in the industries nowadays. I experienced this first hand with a businessman ordering meat and arguing I taxed him more.. In the end, I had to write this fool a balance sheet on his receipt and show him how to add 15% (GST & HST) tax.
Point is, just because someone has a degree or is a customer with an attitude at McDonalds or wherever it is, doesn't give them the right to talk down to students still in school or whoever and can't work full time.
No I don't work minimum wage but I used to so I know how it is for them.
For once in my entire life, I have to agree with @
xtrapsp;