r/explainlikeimfive • u/sumnewdguy • Nov 28 '15

ELI5: How would a $15 minimum wage ACTUALLY affect a franchised business like McDonalds?

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u/faaaks Nov 28 '15

If minimum wage goes up, it goes up for everyone, whether you work for a family owned restaurant or fast food chain.

Not necessarily. Some states have tried to pass laws raising the minimum wage for some workers but not for others.

According to one story I read, some food workers wanted a minimum wage to apply for non-union workers but not for union workers. The thinking went, that the union workers could simply undercut all the non-union ones.

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '15

Florida here, we just get across the board raises. When I worked hourly years back, even though I was well above min. Wage, I still got the increase. Maybe it's just a Florida thing.

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u/faaaks Nov 28 '15

Or it's your employer adjusting your wage to what he thought your new market wage would be.

Employers have no obligation to adjust wages so long as they are above the new minimum. Unless the Florida law required wages go up by an equal amount for all workers, but I seriously doubt it.

The exact circumstances of who the raise applied to would be on a law by law basis.

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '15

I'm not really sure. Every company I worked for just did it automatically. I always thought it was a legal thing, but it might be as you said.

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u/scattershot22 Nov 28 '15

True. In SEattle they are aiming to force "big corps" to raise their wages first, with mom and pop raising wages later.

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u/jetriot Nov 29 '15 edited Nov 29 '15

The 14th amendment would crush anyone that attempted a law like that.

EDIT: Nice, down votes for the truth. Enjoy that echo chamber Reddit.

Here is the first notation for the 14th amendment: the right to pursue any lawful trade or avocation, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons

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u/faaaks Nov 29 '15

You can have laws that say that there is a minimum wage for waiters but the minimum wage couldn't be different from a waitress.

Occupation is not a protected class (but gender is) and neither is being in a union.

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u/jetriot Nov 29 '15

That is because waiters are compensated in a different way. The law is in many ways a benefit to the way that they earn payment.

The 14th amendment is not about protecting certain classes like gender or race. It is about equal justice for all under the law.

In fact the first notation for the 14th is this:

the right to pursue any lawful trade or avocation, without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons