I’m surprised that this is a recent development. I’ve always preferred döner over brats. I’m a terrible German.
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Do people think water works for capsaicin burn? I believe in dairy fat. For burn, not wages.
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Ate at in and out today . Burger reasonably priced at around 3 dollars . Was it good . Filled the void . Would I go there again . Ehhhh . Two shitty tacos from taco bell I would prefer. They should take the French fries off the menu .
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What’s the weather like where you are?
Dairy fat always worked for me.
I should shout out to Potbelly’s samiches. They beat most sub chains to hell. Good bread, good meat and great condiments, including jardiniere. I very much like this place better than most sub shops (save Suburpia).
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I don’t want to get into this, and yet I do. I appreciate that the wages/inflation seems like an intractable problem. And yet, @small_h is only saying what many believe - that someone working full time should make enough $ for a roof over their head and food in their belly. We’d like to think that a min wage job is a stepping stone, but it isn’t. For a lot of people. It’s what they have. It’s not just fast food that pays the min. It’s all manner of jobs outside of food where the educational or experiential requirements are less than other jobs. As long as there is a min wage, there will be jobs that pay it.
As was indicated in an earlier comment, employers will often choose to pay the minimum they can. WE CAN decide as a society that we don’t want this to be the case. We CAN push for societal change - this can be regulatory and it could be non-regulatory - that a living wage is a must. And that instead of inflating everything up the scale so the increase makes no difference, we can push that CEO pay diminishes, or some other way, in order to fund this choice that we’ve made as a society.
Have you ever known a CEO to provide 800x the value to their company compared to a regular employee? I haven’t. The market clearly isn’t working in this respect. We are paying obscene amounts of money to these folks. Obscene. No one complains that this salary increases the price of a burger. Not to mention, maybe I’m too far up the pay scale, but when WA went to a minimum of $15/hr, I don’t recall getting a raise because “everyone would want more money.” Anyway, also leaving this pic here for your consideration. I haven’t dug into it, but different places have different priorities and, ergo, different outcomes.
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I agree in an hyper-technical sense, but a strong CEO effectively controls his or her board, goes through the charade of having the CFO and HR Director recommend the comp package, gets the comp committee to bless it, and gets the board, whom the shareholders approved in a largely rote proxy solicitation to sign off. The point is that for any of these stages to push back is most unusual. Moreover, there are certainly critical choices that are very important, pointing to success or utter failure, but CEOs have little to do with day to day operations in very large companies. There are exceptions, but they are rare and not always positive.
I had a Five Guys lil cheeseburger today, first one in 5 years or so. It was okay, but I think I prefer McD’s quarter pounder with cheese, Wendy’s Jr cheeseburger or single cheeseburger, Harvey’s original cheeseburger (Canada) or Burger’s Priest(Canada) cheeseburger. I usually choose Wendy’s or Harvey’s when it’s a drive thru order burger kind of day.
The Five Guys fries were good.
We order without cheese, with grilled onions and mushrooms. First time there years and years ago, we discovered that a “small” fries feeds two. We enjoy the peanuts and the chalkboard advice about the potato farmer’s name.
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I ordered 2 little cheeseburgers and one order of little fries. The potatoes used in the fries today were from Souris PEI. No peanuts at our southwestern Ontario location.
I ordered my cheeseburger with pickles and sautéed mushrooms, and ordered my DC a cheeseburger with ketchup, relish, pickles, sautéed onions, jalapeños, tomato and lettuce.
I googled the calories, since the little burger is still substantial.
Looks like there are around 580 calories in a little cheeseburger (Canadian patty has 220 calories, bun has 240, cheese has 70, plus mushrooms and pickles, and around 526 calories for the little fries (which were shared).
Canadian Five Guys nutrition chart
https://www.fiveguys.ca/-/media/public-site/files/allergen-ingredients-and-nutrition-info/fiveguysnutrition_aug2014_can_e.ashx
US Five Guys Nutrition chart
https://www.fiveguys.com/-/media/public-site/files/allergen-ingredients-and-nutrition-info/allergen-guide/nutrition-allergen-march-2018-us.ashx
I followed up with 25 grams of Ritter Sport Marzipan, so I’m already at 1000 calories today, and should probably have kale soup for dinner. 
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I can only go with who I know. All the people that work at my local McD’s are kids, but three. I know the three adults personally. One started there after her divorce and is now a manager. Insurance, decent wage, etc. The other is a recent arrival from Nicaragua, who is an excellent worker and making her way up as her English improves. The other is a mom who just works there for PT spending money. All the rest are kids who do not need to support themselves, let alone a family.
Similar stories where my son works (WalMart.) I find the logic behind the higher wages sound; but don’t see the need to boost wages so much for the scant family supporter that has to get by on little. That’s why we spend tax money on SNAP, among many other programs supported by taxpayers. I’m glad Denmark is so nice. We’re not in Denmark here. Right now there are good jobs that pay good wages with insurance. No mega degree needed. Most are just looking for good workers they can train… Go for it. I’m graduating kids who will have simple CDLs making $100k+. Snatch and grab it.
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I appreciate the point you’re making, but I think you’re missing my point a bit. Possibly because this is a food forum and the chain is about McDs. I’m talking about minimum wage being a living wage, for workers in any industry. We have to at least acknowledge that no matter what, there will always be minimum wage jobs, and always be people who rely on those alone to support themselves or family, because of their education, disposition, what have you. A society literally cannot have only medium and well paid jobs. There are always jobs at the bottom, always people who have those jobs, and always people whose life that is and it isn’t a stepping stone to something else. So for that reason alone, I personally believe in a society where that is a real choice, and those people can have the essentials of living, like housing, food. Of course you can feel differently. This is how I feel.
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I remember the first time I went to Arby’s it was long ago believe 1966 I was 10 . I had visions of someone cutting into the roast beef and stacking it onto a bun . My first food dissatisfaction. You know I haven’t been back since . it’s the not you it’s me thing.
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Yes, but there are some things to consider as well. Min wage is about 1% of the population (or 1.5% of workers, and yes, in a country the size of U.S., this is a LOT of people). Yet well over 90% of people earning minimum wage in year 1 will have moved up in year 2, and within 2 years this will be something on the close order of 95% of them.
I realize you mentioned above not really accepting the rhetoric that these are starter jobs, but the data do bear this out for the vast majority. Not all, of course.
I do read the New York Times, and whenever this topic gets hot they can always find several single mothers to profile, who’ve been working Wendy’s for 5+ years and barely making above minimum wage even after that tenure. Yes, people like that exist. Whether due to native talent, family obligations, lack of other local options, or other reasons, some people do stick to the minimum wage-ish jobs. But they’re exceptions.
Perhaps the answer is for cities or states or whatever authority to require minimum annual wage increases for good workers who continue to work those jobs multiple years.
I live in one of those states which itself has not mandated minimum wage above the federal required, nor have any cities here done so, to the best of my knowledge. Yet the starting wage for inexperienced workers (whether McDonalds or Whole Foods or whatever) in my area is $14/hr. And the gas station big chains (QT and Racetrak and the like) start people at $16.
Market forces are frustratingly damned slow to react, but they do tend to work - eventually. Once a crisis forces market forces to react, there’s generally no going back.
In the seven states which still have no minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage, yes the NYT will be able to find someone like mentioned above who’s barely making $8.50/hr despite having 5 years time in service. But they’re pretty rare.
And again, I’d be happy enough with rules-making that said those folks should get length-of-service type adjustments pushing them much higher than their entry-level fellows. The cost to business for these folks would be tiny, given how few in number they are.
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We’re of the old school that there is dignity and pride in all honest work. Sheesh, politics aside, who in their right mind celebrates freeloading/hiding in the basement on the dole, fer goodness’s sake?
That said, we’ve enjoyed a lifetime of knowing minimum wage college classmates who’ve worked at KFC (he claims he knows the secret 11 herbs and spices formula, hah!) (also had two paper routes when there were morning and evening papers) and ended up a prosperous lawyer; another who was the summer ice cream vendor who ended up in medical school and worse; another . . . well, you get the idea.
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I miss Arthur’s Treacherous Fish & Chips!!
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And H. Salt too!
That’d be quite a drive for me!
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I don’t know the stats, but I hope you’re right that there aren’t too many that survive on min wage for long periods. There are plenty of places in the US where it would be very hard to make ends meet that way.
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