Government Subsidizes Fast-Food Companies

You do realize that fast food was never meant to be a "career", and there is no way the skills required to work fast food is worth $15 hour.

The fact of the matter is that it is a career for many. The average age is 27.

The workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, which means paying them a living wage.

I think $15 would be good for all concerned, and that workers would not have to apply for government welfare to live decently.

Who's fault is it that they have to make a career out of fast food? Companies aren't paying for the people, they are paying for the labor that the people produce. The labor produced at a McD's isn't worth $15 and they shouldn't get $15. Have you ever worked fast food? I have and I can tell you that at the most $10 would be acceptable but nothing more. If people can't survive working the fast food industry then they should be improving their skills so they can get a better job.

What do you say to the people who have skills and are making $15 hr for their work? Sorry but your skills are now worth the same amount as someone who flips burgers or drops fries in oil? This demand for a living wage wouldn't be a problem if people took control of their own lives and did something with them instead of expecting others to do it for them. If your over 25 and working at a fast food joint, you really need to look at your life and figure out what you did wrong. If they are a high school drop out then I have no sympathy for them and they deserve fast food wages.

who else do you have no sympathy for, baldi?

I bet it's quite a list...

It is a small list.

The funny thing is that our society needs fast-food workers, laborers, truck drivers, farmhands, clerks, et al., and similar low-wage occupations. Again, these people should be treated with decency, not looked down upon, and should be paid a good wage.

If skilled people, such as beginning teachers, are being paid $15, they should join a union and demand better pay.

As for your derision of, say, dropouts, some people are not cut out for school. That doesn't give employers the right to pay cooly wages. These people work hard and should get good pay.

Pay should be based on what you provide to your company. Flipping burgers isn't a hard job and the wage should be paid in accordance with skills that person has.

Sorry to tell you, but a beginning teacher doesn't have any skills or experience either. They have an education but no skills or experience. How can you pay them $70,000 a year with no experience?

This is a problem with society and a problem with the younger amoung us. They demand things but have nothing to offer in return.

I'm a person who has worked fast food in the past (early 90's) and got out because the pay and hours sucked. I have worked my way up my success ladder and nothing was handed to me. Hell 5 years ago I was new to the storage industry and I started out at $38,000 a year pre-tax. In the 5 or 6 years since that time, I have gained enough experience and skills that my company now pays me just under 80k a year. Just so you know I only have a high school education with a few years of college.

My work path has taken me from Arby's to Walmart to the Construction field and then to the IT field. I was making $7.50hr at Walmart in the mid 90's. It can be done but you have to work for it and not get stuck in the same job for years on end. That leads to stagnation and a place where you will never make any money.

You are are contradicting yourself. You started in the storage business with no experience (skills) in that business, and made over $18 an hour. But you would relegate a 27 year old woman in the fast food business to getting only $7.25 an hour.

I was new to the storage industry, but I was not new with the IT industry. You don't get hired in my type of job without some IT experience. I knew how RAID works, I knew about networks, but I didn't know ISCSI storage. I worked an internet help desk job as a level I and a level II tech. I didn't walk into this job knowing nothing.

Fast food on the other hand requires no experience or skills. If you can't pull the fries out of the fryer when the bell goes off then you are some serious issues.

Why is that 27 year old woman in the fast food business? Why at the age of 27 are they still doing a job meant for a teenager? What kind of poor life choices did they make to put them where they are at? I know not everyone makes poor choices to end up in a job like that but it would be a minority that didn't make bad choices and the majority that did make poor choices. If you have been there for 10 years, who's fault is that? Didn't think to enhance your skills and maybe go for a management position or a team lead position? 10 years is a lot of time to move up in a company. If you aren't moving up, then you are dying at your job. Who takes the blame then?

Please spare us the reductio ad absurdum. No one said or implied that a beginning teacher should get $70,000.

One out of three bank clerks in NYC has to go on welfare to get by. This is notwithstanding the banks are cleaning up. The clerks make about $11.

In the last decade, our economy has doubled. Guess what -- all of that increase went to the top 10 percent. Forget about the middle class getting almost wiped out. The top 10 percent make over half the total income in the country. This is the GOP way.

I don't care how much it has increased, what have people done to increase their skills and their worthyness to the company? If you have been in the same job and have not increased your skills then how do you deserve more money? If people get into a dead end job with no chance of advancement, who is keeping them there? Who is forcing them to stay where they are instead of moving on? If your content with what you do, don't be surprised by what you make.

Almost whiped out? I'm doing ok, my income has increased every year for the last several years. I haven't stayed put and I have increased my skills in my field. 5 years ago I was making $38,000 a year pre tax. I'm making closer to 80k a year now. I don't have a college degree or any fancy certs in the IT field, I'm smart and I understand the technology and I learn. I have made myself worth more so there for I earn more.

Your tripe about the GOP way is a bunch of crap. People have to make themselves worth more or they won't make more. I doesn't matter what you do, but you have to increase your wealth. There are enough programs out there for people to go to school that there really should be an excuse. If they are making as little as they claim, then they would qualify for college grants and can increase their worth in the job market. Don't ever forget that wages are based on the market worth of the labor you provide. No skills, no pay. Anyone can flip burgers and stock shelves, I know I was there 20 years ago. Hell most call center jobs only require that you know how to spell and can type. They can teach you the rest. I haven't seen a call center job start at less then $11.00 an hour. That is starting and most starting pay doesn't last more then a year.

You made it clear -- you got yours and you don't give a damn about anyone else. Please spare us the bragging.

BTW, how do you obtain the needed skills when you don't make a living wage, and you have to have two jobs to do that?

I'm not bragging, I'm pointing out that it can be done. Sorry you don't see it that way. I don't give a damn about anyone else? If I did it why can't they? I'm nothing special and I didn't come from money. My dad was a cop and my mother didn't work. I just don't except the excuses that it is the fault of MCDS, it's people are on welfare.

That's a good question. Why didn't they do it earlier in life if the average age is 27? More concerned with having a good time instead of planning for the future? There are more programs available today to advance ones self then there was before. College grants, student loans or some sort of jobs program. There are several choices and people aren't taking the steps they need to advance. They would rather complain and force their employer to pay them more then do better by themselves.

You were lucky. You grew up in a good middle-class home. But what if you grew up in a single-parent home in which substandard English was spoken, and there was no extra money for any training, etc.? Then, I could see you behind the McD counter.

Why doesn't the person speak very good english? There is always money for training, the govt is always handing out money for training. Whether the program works or not, they will always hand out the money.

Sorry to disappoint Advocate but I wouldn't put up with poor pay, I leave jobs because of that and find something better. You can't take away the fact that I worked hard and busted my ass to get where I am at. Once again it is possible but some people only have excuses for why they aren't doing better. Few people have an honest story about the choices they make.

I guess not everyone is as wonderful as you are.

I'm not wonderful and I'm not any better then anyone, but I didn't wait for someone to do anything for me, and I didn't blame "the man" for my ill's. It's called taking control of ones future. Everyone can do it, but they have to realize that they are at fault for their ill's.

Forget yourself for just once. Can you conceive of a situation in which a person's background and upbringing was so difficult that he found it impossible to go beyond a min wage job?

Sure I can think of a situation, but that situation doesn't apply to the mass of people who work fast food and want $15 hr for the work they do.