McDonald's workers: 'supersize my check'

[Onkel Neal]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...test/27705321/

McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook told shareholders on Thursday that he was "incredibly proud" of the company's recent efforts to increase its workers pay as thousands of protesters calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage gathered outside the fast food company's headquarters.

The demonstrators – chanting for McDonald's to "supersize my check" – came to Oak Brook this week to call McDonald's out for insufficient pay, drawing negative attention to the fast food giant two weeks after Easterbrook's announced turnaround plan failed to impress investors. The annual shareholders meeting marked Easterbrook's first as the company's CEO.

Easterbrook pushed back that McDonald's has been on the industry's cutting edge on the issue, when it announced earlier this year that it would start paying workers $1 per hour above the local minimum wage. The hike, however, only applies to company-owned McDonald's which account for about 10% of stores in the USA.

"I am incredibly proud of the announcement we made around minimum wage," Easterbrook said of the $1 per hour hike. "We voluntarily took a leadership position on this."

$15 an hour for flipping burgers.... man, I don't know what to say. Do they think that kind of work is worth $15 an hour? What do they think will happen if these these entry-level jobs get up to $15 an hour? The price of fast food will stay the same? No, everything will go up along with their pay, the companies cannot pull the money out of the air, and they are not going to reduce profits, duh, that's what they are running a business for.

So, if burger flippers and coffee makers get $15 an hour, teachers and managers will go up to $35 an hour, truck drivers will get $50 an hour, plant operators will be at $75 an hour, and so on. Let's bring on the inflation.