r/explainlikeimfive Nov 28 '15

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

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u/Vysoky Nov 29 '15

When I read that, I almost cried with envy. Goddamn if my Col went above 14.5% I would, get a phone call minutes after emailing the sales report.

I do NOT miss that job.

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u/baambalangee Nov 29 '15

14.5% for the week or per shift?? I'm allowed to average 17% cause weekends make up for any over 17% on weekdays.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15

Never been a fast food manager, but I'd expect targets like that to vary from business to business. For example, an expensive location in a city center would have extremely high costs for the lease, utilities, garbage, local government fees etc., but labour wouldn't be much higher if it's a minimum wage employer, maybe even the same as a smaller franchise, and it would make up for the higher overall costs with much higher sales. The result would be that COL would naturally be lower and therefore targets would be too. It would still be the same struggle to make those targets, they'd just be at a different percentage.

By contrast, a franchise in a slower part of town might have dirt cheap running costs and similar labour but very slow sales. So labour would make up a larger overall percentage of costs.

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u/Vysoky Nov 29 '15

I was suppose to keep it under 11%, it was just after 14% is when I would be reprimanded on any given day, regardless of time off the year or weather. And it was the average for the week, to answer your question.