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Supersizing Minimum Wage: When unions back striking fast-food workers, it isn’t out of altruism.
National Review ^ | August 17, 2013 | Jillian Kay Melchior

Posted on 08/17/2013 11:19:22 AM PDT by EveningStar

Recent weeks have seen strikes in at least eight cities across America, with restaurant and retail workers claiming they deserve more than minimum wage. Their common refrain has been that if those greedy CEOs would only take a pay cut, low-paid workers could make a living wage to support themselves and their families...

The AFL-CIO has an entire section on its website, complete with flashy infographics, condemning CEO pay, which it claims "has skyrocketed while the average worker's pay has stagnated despite increases in productivity. . . . The middle class is dwindling and more and more working people are living hand-to-mouth." ...

[T]he CEO of McDonald's makes $5,370,666 in cash compensation. Divide that by 420,000 employees ... and workers would get an average hourly increase of 0.0061 cents per hour ...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fastfood; minimumwage; unions

1 posted on 08/17/2013 11:19:22 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar
I know its not fast food, but the comparison still works.
Walmart CEO, Mike Duke, makes $20.7 million a year.
Walmart has 2 million employees.
That would equate to $10.35 a year per employee. Or about .05175 cents per hour.
2 posted on 08/17/2013 11:36:06 AM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: EveningStar

All I see is people asking for more per hour but not more hours.


3 posted on 08/17/2013 11:42:37 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: EveningStar
What your work is worth = what someone is willing to pay you and not 1¢ more.
4 posted on 08/17/2013 11:48:41 AM PDT by JPG (Obama, Juan and Linda Do Egypt.)
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To: EveningStar
I think another point should be made.
McDonalds continues to open new stores and hiring more people.

With that comes added work load and added responsibility for the CEO. Meanwhile, workers responsibility and work load remains the same.

5 posted on 08/17/2013 11:50:32 AM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: EveningStar

I have noticed Smashburger and Subway are rolling out online ordering. Why pay people more money to ba a cashier, when customers are willing to be their own cashiers for free?


6 posted on 08/17/2013 11:51:40 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: EveningStar
http://www.ruthfullyyours.com/2011/04/27/thomas-sowell-walter-williams-debunks-popular-myths-about-race-in-america/

The last year in which the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate was 1930. That was also the last year in which there was no federal minimum wage law.

The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 was in part a result of a series of incidents in which non-union black construction labor enabled various contractors from the South to underbid Northern contractors who used white, unionized construction labor.

The Davis-Bacon Act required that “prevailing wages” be paid on government construction projects– “prevailing wages” almost always meaning in practice union wages. Since blacks were kept out of construction unions then, and for decades thereafter, many black construction workers lost their jobs.

7 posted on 08/17/2013 11:55:11 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: EveningStar

Many union wage contracts are tied to the minimum wage. If it goes up so does the contract wage, without negotiation.


8 posted on 08/17/2013 11:56:09 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Davis-Bacon adds a minimum of 35% to publicly financed construction projects. It exists to allow unions contractors the ability to win such projects. The taxpayer get nothing extra but screwed.
9 posted on 08/17/2013 12:02:40 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: cripplecreek
I LOOOOOVE me some overtime (but to a certain point)
Makes for some good pay checks.

I prefer a continual 50-60 hour work week, but I like, for moneys sake, an 84 hour week for relatively short spurts. Maybe 2 weeks of 7 days a week, 12 hour days, then a week of 50-60 hours, then another week or two of 7 x 12s.

A few rotations of these makes for some nice checks. (And one tired mountn man)

10 posted on 08/17/2013 12:03:22 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Don Corleone

Exactly. Then non-union employers eventually follow suit.

And then companies raise prices in order to cover the expense of paying extra wages.

Then we end up back where we started. IOW, inflation.


11 posted on 08/17/2013 12:03:47 PM PDT by EveningStar ("What color is the sky in your world?" -- Frasier Crane)
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To: EveningStar
iirc various union contracts are tied to some multiple of the minimum wage so of course they want it to go up...
12 posted on 08/17/2013 12:17:52 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: EveningStar

The CEO of McDonalds Corp. has nothing to do with the wages of the guy flipping the burgers at the local restaurant. The owner of the restaurant pays the flipper’s salary. ITS A FRANCHISE!!!


13 posted on 08/17/2013 12:25:09 PM PDT by SkiKnee
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To: EveningStar
The CEO of McDonald's makes $5,370,666 in cash compensation. Divide that by 420,000 employees ... and workers would get an average hourly increase of 0.0061 cents per hour ...

Bad arithmetic. The workers would get an hourly increase of 0.61 cents per hour.

($5,370,666 / 420,000 employees) / (2,080 hours per year) = $0.0061 per hour = 0.61 cents per hour. Full time. But due to Obamacare, the workers will not get above 30 hours per week so the actual figure is closer to 0.82 cents per hour. For that matter, if they cut all the workers back to 6 hours per year each worker would get a $2.13 per hour increase.

14 posted on 08/17/2013 2:04:37 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: mountn man

A few years back a grain company I worked for was awarded a huge wheat export contract. Hiring and training people would take too long so there were 16 of us who approached our manager about us working our regular job for 8 hours and then moving to another desk to process all the paperwork for another 8 hours. Had 16 hour days for a month but financially it was well worth it to both the employees and the company. Have always been amazed by the number of people who absolutely refuse to work any overtime at all for any reason.

Now own my own business and would love to get even minimum wage some months. But there are other trade-offs.


15 posted on 08/17/2013 2:18:59 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: EveningStar

It is real easy to make more money with no skills and education. It is called enlistment. Good pay, three squares a day, medical, housing, and benefits. If you are responsible, the US Military will pay for an education. But this require sacrifice and responsibility. These people have been suckered by leftist Unions that other people owe you.


16 posted on 08/17/2013 3:24:20 PM PDT by 11th Commandment (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/)
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To: EveningStar

Would just love to see these restaurants just close down until the wildcat strike ends. Owners could take a much needed vacation.


17 posted on 08/17/2013 5:17:11 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: 11th Commandment

Not everybody who tries to enlist is accepted. It isn’t like the old days.


18 posted on 08/18/2013 12:38:16 AM PDT by newzjunkey (bah)
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