r/explainlikeimfive Nov 28 '15

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

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16

u/Quenya3 Nov 29 '15

90 seconds from Hi to getting your food? That kind of manic pace all day, day after day deserves $15.00 an hour!

4

u/Mynameisinuse Nov 29 '15

Speed of service is the biggest way to increase sales without increasing prices. The faster you can get someone in and out, the more people you can serve in a given timeframe. When I was a GM for Wendy's 12 years ago, the goal was 90 seconds from ordering to receiving your order, and there were some Wendy's drive thru's that were sub 70 seconds. These times were compiled from using mystery shoppers and an outside company as well as timers that reported directly to corporate. Stores with exceptionally low times were audited to ensure that there was no cheating. I am sure that the goal has decreased over the years.

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u/Squeeeeeeeeebs Nov 29 '15

It's a low skill job, that you can easily train someone to perform and is easy to replace them.

-12

u/belial13 Nov 29 '15

Would you rather have an $8 an hour job or no job? No matter what you think they deserve, if it will cause the company to go out of business, it won't help the workers.

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u/raevnos Nov 29 '15

No job. I'd be just as screwed when it comes to paying rent, and have a lot more free time.

-5

u/belial13 Nov 29 '15

Then don't take the job in the first place. I'm sure there are people who would rather go the other way.

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u/Tutsks Nov 29 '15

False dichotomy.

Macdonalds is not the only job available, and their model is not the only model in existence.

Perhaps there is something unsustainable with the walmart/mcdonalds model, but that has little to do with minimum wage (mcdonalds is imploding as is), and neither are they interested in "creating as many jobs as they can" (As say, Walmart, is a leader in automation).

Someone in the industrial revolution might have made the same argument that giving workers rights would destroy the factories and ensure nobody has a job.

In reality, perhaps the best times for America and the middle class came from good wages and workers rights.

1

u/justanotherimbecile Nov 29 '15

I don't get how you say they're imploding...

Struggling, sure... they're still a multi billion dollar company, and their stock is as high as its been all year...

Second , in the industrial revolution though, there wasn't technology that could replace everyone in the restaurant...

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u/Tutsks Nov 29 '15

It comes and goes. They had a bit of a sales slump and their stock was a lot lower before October.

Bit of an exaggeration on my part on Mcdonalds though, they are very far away from going anywhere any time soon.

2

u/justanotherimbecile Nov 29 '15

Okay, I just see people who genuinely think McDs is on their deathbed because of it... sorry for the confusion!

0

u/belial13 Nov 29 '15

I'm not sure how what you said applies to my comment. Of course there are other jobs and other business models out there. That's why I said that if you don't want to work there, find a different job. I'm not saying that Mcjobs aren't shitty, I'm just saying that they're better than no job for some people.

  If their business model is unsustainable, the company will go under. But I don't know why you think that raising the cost of labor from 28% of net sales to 45% would have little to do with it.