Joel Libava
They only make $7.25 an hour.
That’s why hundreds of fast food franchise workers are going on strike in NYC.
Hourly employees from franchises like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and KFC are seeking to double their hourly pay-all the way up to $15 an hour.
Are they (mostly franchise business employees) asking too much?
Could you live on $7.25 an hour?
And, what would Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame do about wages?
Get Your Calculator Out
I did.
And, I actually had to do my computation twice-because I didn’t believe the first number that was displayed on my Casio®.
Workers that get paid $7.25 an hour-and who work 40 hour weeks make $15,080 a year.
That’s not a lot of money.
Making Burgers
Obviously, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to cook a burger or ring up a cash register.
And, hopefully, today’s college graduates…the ones that are graduating with $60,000 in student loan debt, aren’t finding themselves working in one of Ray Kroc’s fast food franchise empires. (As opposed to getting a cushy corporate well-paying job.)
Because if they are working at their local McDonald’s, they’ll have to move back home-and live with their parents.
For a long time.
Fast Food Forward
That’s the name of the group that organized this one-day walkout. Their website.
They’re arguing that the average wage for fast food franchise workers in the New York City area is around $9 an hour. If you compute that, it comes out to about $18,500 per year. Income like that is way under the U.S. Census Bureau’s threshold for poverty-level income; $23,000 per year for a family of four.
Fast Food Franchisees Have Their Challenges
Today’s fast-food franchisees don’t have it all that easy themselves.
They’re being hit with cost pressures; higher operating costs and Obamacare uncertainty are only two of them. And don’t forget that they’re paying 4-8% of their sales revenue to the franchisor.
It’s expensive to run a fast food franchise. But, that doesn’t mean that I want you to feel sorry for franchisees or franchisors.
But, something has to give.
Right?
PS- These striking employees want the right to form a union without intimidation or retaliation.
Image #1 courtesy of Tilemahos Efthimiadis, on Flickr
Image #2 courtesy of Franco Folini
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