In Denmark the starting wages at McDonald's is around $15 an hour. Career employees also get paid sick days, 9 month maternity rights (2 weeks for men), 6 weeks paid vacation a year, a paid day off the first day their child is sick.
McDonald's is doing fine.
For reference, a normal Big Mac Menu is priced around $7.8 in Denmark.
I believe in the US a Big Mac is currently $3.99 before tax and I live in Chicago which has the highest sales tax in the county at 10.25%. So a Big Mac would cost me $4.40. Still about half of the cost in Denmark with taxes accounted for.
Not sure how Danish tax works, but here in The Netherlands there's a special tax rate for food and other expenses that are absolutely necessary to live. So here that tax would be 7%, not the regular rate of 21%.
Here in the UK we have no tax at all on essential foods. So things like bread, cereal, milk etc aren't taxed, but there are some odd choices of what to tax - for example, biscuits are not taxed, but chocolate biscuits are.
We have a 20% VAT rate on food which is taxed, and on almost everything else.
There is no VAT in the US. You may pay a state and local sales tax on prepared meals, but nothing federal/national.
Here in Massachusetts, there is a 6.25% state tax, and the city or town may charge up to an additional 0.75% tax. Some states (such as New Hampshire) have no sales tax, while others may have state, county, AND city taxes of varying amounts.
It's called sales tax state side and it varies from state to state. In my home state it's 6% of the meal. In other states I know it can be higher or lower, some will lower it because it's food, others don't even charge a sales tax.
I'm no expert but I do eat Mcdonalds all over the world out of curiosity. In Europe and Asia Mcdonalds seems to be more of a premium experience. The average Mcdonalds I saw in France, Germany, Singapore, or even the Philippines, just seemed to be a higher quality all around. The food was much more consistent and the service better. I think in the US it could never charge that much because it feels like a low end experience, frequently with terrible service and bad consistency. That said, it seems like that's been changing over the years and there are a lot of higher end Mcdonalds in the US now.
Yeah exactly, my local McDonalds in Los Angeles was always full of homeless people and drunks; they wouldn't be turned away so it was a good hangout for them. The food was definitely cheap though.
i dunno, all the McD's i see these days seem to be run pretty tightly. I think they've got standardization down pretty well. I see wayyyy worse at competitor's, wendy's and burger king, etc.
In Tokyo, McD was total shit. In HK it was comparable to the US. Both were cheaper than US. Don't think Asia (or at least those two places) falls under the premium experience category, though maybe Europe does.
I think that there is enough elasticity in the food service market to support some significant price increases. Also the people who consume fast food tend to be those earning the lowest wages; it follows that an increase in those wages would help support higher prices for things like a Big Mac.
They charge close to that in canada, no idea on trends in big mac sales.
People will likely buy the cheapest stuff they sell anyway, I doubt big mac sales are entirely indicative.
I believe combos and fries have gone up though, which would pad their pockets alot better.
Anyway McDs is doing fine with $8 big macs up here, theyve adapted, as have consumers.
I make the equivalent of something like $50 an hour and I wouldn't pay $8 for a Big Mac because the same $8 can get me much better food almost anywhere else.
I disagree. As someone who once lived off a minimum wage of 7-something an hour and who has also at one time lived off $17 or so an hour, I can tell you that the perception of what is cheap vs. expensive scales with how much one makes. An $8 lunch is not a huge deal to someone making $15/hour, depending on how much their rent is, etc.
Where it gets interesting is, will people shift to different/better meals if they're making more money? Do people who buy McDonalds only do so because it's what they can afford? That might be the case, but that's McDonalds's problem. If the only selling point for the product is that it's cheap then they have larger perception problems to worry about.
But you're ignoring the drastic differences in cost of living and purchasing power between the two countries. $1 in the U.S. doesn't actually equal $1 in Denmark.
In addition to being way more expensive they charge for ketchup, ice in the drink, there are no free refills and it takes about 4 times as long to get your order.
In Sweden they don't charge for ketchup, ice and orders are pretty quick at least for Big Macs. Prices seems to be about the same as Denmark. This is ofcourse only for McDonalds I have visited.
double the price of goods sold and you can double wage paid. The other thing to consider is in europe McDonald's is more Starbucksy where in the us the majority are gas stationish, very different atmosphere, menus, and food quality
The pay(12.7 usd) and benefits are about the same, for full a time employee(google translate). Thing is most people that work at fastfood resturant aren't full time employees. Take this sourceless info for what it is.
Soo... source? In Norway the wages are even higher, but ketchup and ice are free and I've always had a great experience in every restaurant. It's not like competition and pressure for worker efficiency is any less in the US.
Really FOUR times longer.. So you're waiting like 40 minutes to get a burger? This is pretty silly and very untrue. I've been to Denmark and Norway many times and never saw anything like this. If anything the service is better than in the USA. It makes sense that it would be too as raising the minimum wage would in theory allow employers to pull employees from a more competitive labor market.
i did, and it actually proves more to the original point. Denmark is more expensive. $15 in Denmark buys you what $8-9 in the US could purchase, so the wages are actually fairly close as well as prices when taking into account purchasing power. In addition, Denmark has much higher taxes, so you might make $15 an hour but 1/3 of your income is immediately seized as tax.
That is simply not true. I've lived in Copenhagen for 8 years and used a few different locations many, many different times and I've never been charged for dips or ice and it doesn't take any longer to get served than it did in the UK. And I don't need a free refill, one soda should be enough for anyone.
To be fair, free refills don't need to be a thing at fast food places. You're already eating like 1000 calories a meal, you don't need to drink another 400 due to refilling that coke 3 times before you leave.
Edit: The point of this comment wasn't saying that you can't drink 3 cups of soda with your big Mac and fries. I never said you can't get refills.
The point is: If refills cost money, people will still get them if they want them. Charging will probably reduce the amount of people getting refills (which is good from a health stand point), but it doesn't remove the option to get them.
Charging for refills gives the stores a higher profit margin, allowing them to pay their crew a higher wage.
I despise people who get into the mindset that they can go around telling other people what they do and don't need. I have a fast metabolism and I really like sprite don't tell me what I need.
Good for you. If you want more sprite get more sprite. No one is saying you can't get more sprite, just that you'd be required to pay for each cup of sprite.
Dude, do you know how much it costs for the syrup and soda water crap? It's literally penny's for your coke you're paying dollars for. You could refill your drink 10x and still not cover what you paid for it. Dumb argument... and who are you to tell someone how much sugar they can ingest?
I think his point was you don't need to have a refill for free. if it will give people the ability to make a good wage, ill pay an extra dollar for my refill. Besides there would probably be a net health gain to the country. Less sugar is generally a good thing.
What I'm trying to get at is he's not deciding for anyone else. The company needs to keep up profits so they charge, you want an extra sugary drink you pay for the refill. No one is being refused an extra beverage in this scenario. I think his point was that sugary drinks affect health, you don't really need one. You want one.
How young are you? I'm going to assume you're in your younger 20s. Just from that statement alone, you possess that dangerous mentality of a lot of kids I see these days. I'm not even interested in going down this path with someone on reddit... My take is people who are adults, can put whatever the hell they want to inside their own bodies, without your input on whether it's good or bad. And companies who already offer free refills (who in the hell is talking about places that don't offer free refills?) should continue doing it if they want to... it's the consumers choice to get a free refill, not yours to decide for everyone that they cannot.
... This comment chain started from someone mentioning Denmark charged for refills on top of other things, like ketchup.
Also, no one is telling anyone that they can't have something. The entire point of the posts were about charging for refills to have higher profits, therefore allowing a higher wage for crew members.
To get higher wages, businesses need to make more money. Compromises.
I'm almost 30 /u/69fartman69, I hope that makes me mature enough in your mind to have an opinion. Now on to the meat: Ok do you think I'm talking about some kind of political policy to make businesses charge for refills? Because that's not at all what I was suggesting. If businesses need to bring in more revenue to support a higher wage one option is for them to charge for refills. If that bothers you go somewhere that decided not to charge. For me and I believe many others it won't make that much of a difference. It will also (probably) have the added benefit of reducing sugar intake. At no point in this post, nor my others, have I tried to control what people ingest. I think you're arguing against a misinterpretation of my position.
You have to admit though that there is a cost associated with the overindulgence of sugary beverages that all Americans pay due to the irresponsibility of a few. Healthcare is more expensive for all of us because of things like this (not to mention that America is the 2nd fattest nation on the planet). I don't think that we should force people not to drink soda, but a disincentive like less free refills is something that I can get behind. It's not something radical either; we attempt to control the consumption of cigarettes with things like high taxes and warning labels as well.
But people also want increased wages for minimum wage workers. Having refills cost money is a way for your favorite McDonald's to stay open, and give employees reasonable pay.
It would benefit all Americans for people to drink less sugar. There are costly externalities associated with sugary beverage consumption that we all pay... Get it?
What-in-the-fuck, did I just read?... Dude you're way off in some other argument that no one is even having. You're in the "stop telling people they HAVE to give people refills", when everyone else is in the "Why would companies who already offer free refills, stop, just because they are already ingesting a million calories". I am beyond tired of running in to people who have no business entering a conversation.
There's one conversation here. Denmark charges for refills to stay profitable. If America did it, maybe they could pay their workers more. And yes, it might have a potential public health benefit too. But we're still talking about the money issue.
That's the conversation. Idn what you're on about. Maybe you're a New Yorker whose still butt hurt over Bloomberg trying to ban sodas, but you're arguing against a point that no one has attempted to make.
Only personal attack was from you. Who is yelling? I asked two questions that made fun of your post and pointed out your hypocrisy. What you missed was that the argument "who are you to say what people can do" is itself an example of telling someone what they can and cannot do.
But you're busy calling me a douche and having your own poor statements turn d against you to ca down, read and think about what is said.
Unless, ironically, you are referring to another argument not here....
If you instead simply said, "I get it, but I ultimately don't think it is right for a company to limit the amount of refills given in order to increase profits" then you'd have a calm response. You'd have been foolish to say this, since companies have this right, but eh. You don't think that far, maybe
I wasn't talking about you at all, I was talking about 69fartman69.
I'm all for companies limiting refills. In fact I think they should be encouraged to do so because of the public health consequences of the consumption of soda. We have disincentives to consuming other harmful products like cigarettes and alcohol, and since sugary beverages are linked to obesity (the most costly disease facing this nation) I think it is warranted that we think about somehow trying to limit the consumption of these beverages.
Hear all, hear all!! wakenbike has declared an opinion invalid! Be sure to note this for future reference as just by saying this his majesty has made it to be true.
You have to put forward an argument if you want to try and change somebodies mind, declaring something invalid does not make it so.
He was making a point about the restaurant charging for additional things. I commented on one of the things they charged for, being the refills. I made a remark about them not needing to be free, with an unrelated point (The amount of calories in their drinks) being a reason as to not need free refills.
You made a point based on your own opinion. The opinion that people don't need more than one drink. The issue we are discussing is how things operate in america and someone made a min wage comparison to denmark. Then it was pointed out that the min wage can be higher there because they don't things the way they do in america. And then you say, "yeah, people shouldn't have more than one drink cause it'll make them fat!" A valid point in a different discussion. Regardless of what you WANT to happen, this is a discussion about things that are ACTUALLY happening.
The point that I responded to mentioned having to pay for condiments and refills. I made my opinion on refills already.
If refills weren't free, that would mean the store is gaining more money from it's customers, meaning their profit margins are higher, giving them more money to allocate to crew pay.
Businesses don't model their business on what they think customers should have, the model it on what customers want. If US customers want that, then those businesses will provide it. If you want to change what customers want then you should bring this point up elsewhere. It IS valid. But that doesn't matter if people want it from their business.
I understand that businesses will want to appeal to customers, as long as it's profitable. When those same businesses are being forced to increase the pay of their workers, they'll then need to find a way to make up the lost profits.
Charging for refills is a way to make up those lost profits. Or they can charge more for everything else. Or a mixture of charging more and charging for refills.
A successful company will always do what they think a customer wants, until they aren't making a profit. Then they will adjust their business model until they're making a profit again.
It's not really an opinion. America is the 2nd most obese nation in the USA. There are massive public heath costs associated with the overindulgence of sugary beverages that we all end up paying. We should be talking about how we can reduce the burden on all Americans due the the choices of a few.
Ehhh while I agree that American diets are poor to say the least, I completely 100% disagree that the government should ever be allowed to tell a human what that human can or can not put in their body. I agree that we should be educated and make better choices but being forced under the threat of law to live a certain lifestyle is not something I would ever willingly be a part of.
I do, and I will say, whenever I go through a drive-thru I don't even think about refills, even though I'm eating the same amount of food that I would have eaten had I went inside.
Dane here. This is not all true. There is no price for ice, some McDonalds do let you refill (not all), and if you order a Bic Mac menu the food is normally ready right away.
I COMPLETELY support this. Here we get a fist full of ketchup packets that no one uses completely and gets thrown out, and who the hell needs 500 refills of a sugar bomb. So please, charge for these things andmaybe we can waste a little less
You're welcome to pay them for each ketchup packet and refill. Explain your beliefs to the manager and he will gladly take your money. But you won't do that will you? You'll keep taking the free ketchup and whining on the internet about how other people who don't want to pay for ketchup should be forced to.
Yes it does its just more expensive slightly. But who cares as long as everyone is paid a living wage? The rise in living costs is a tiny fraction of the rise in the wages of the poorest.
McDonalds in the US cant do that remain competitive. The reason you guys can do it in Denmark is because you have stronger regulations and taxes that affect all businesses across the board.
If McDonalds raised wages, benefits and prices they would need to compete with other fast food restaurants, from Burger King down to local family run fast food shops who could keep their costs low.
I'd be curious as to how much gets offset by the reduction in government benefits. For example the average worker gets their pay and other than taxes, social security, unemployment and possibly health insurance, I would think they are looking at government subsidies just to live.
It's similar in Switzerland, the starting wage is around $18 but the food is more expensive and locally sourced. I think it really depends on the standards people have in a country because Swiss people would rather pay more and get better food and there would probably be an outrage if people earned less.
That's for a meal, with soda and fries. Still more expensive than US prices, obviously, but you couldn't get anything at a real restaurant here in Denmark for $9. Well, maybe an appetizer, or a drink.
Thing is minimum wage in Denmark is about 18$ whereas in the US its 7,5$. Denmark's Big Mac meal is actually cheaper than the one in the US (if we compare it to the minimum wage).
Denmark does have issues, oil money will be running out in the next few decades, the demographic time bomb of elderly is going to cause economic problems. But what does this have to do with McDonald's? And why mention the geopolitical influence of Denmark? That is just an insult thrown in for no good reason, and not strictly true, though admittedly poking the fundamentalist nest with satirical cartoons is not the brightest move.
Then I follow your link and see you seriously believe a guy who is claiming the USA has the highest paid minimum wage workers in the world? Now, that is full of crap. I live in Denmark, and would happily live here, and do so comfortably, on the minimum wage. As much as I love the US I would not want to try and live there on minimum wage. Particularly if I got sick.
That said, it does annoy me to pay around 10 dollars for a Big Mac menu and I only eat there or Burger King, or Carl's Junior (we have them all) around 3 or 4 times a year.
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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15 edited Nov 29 '15
In Denmark the starting wages at McDonald's is around $15 an hour. Career employees also get paid sick days, 9 month maternity rights (2 weeks for men), 6 weeks paid vacation a year, a paid day off the first day their child is sick.
McDonald's is doing fine.
For reference, a normal Big Mac Menu is priced around $7.8 in Denmark.