Why do fast food workers/Wal-Mart employees/etc think they deserve $15 an hour?

[kbrown225]

why would they pay everyone double than what they make now.
I think $9 is fair, but I also don't know how much mcdonalds profits every year
if some patty flippers can make $15 an hr. I better get $20

[TheFourthPooper]

In the past new technologies would destroy old jobs and create new ones while increasing the productivity of our society. Now I am wondering if new technologies are net destroyers of jobs. We still see the productivity gains new technologies bring, but maybe nowadays the trend is for less and less of a need for people in the work force. This would obviously be a huge problem.

The reason why civilized society works is b/c enough people decide to follow the rules. There is a social contract with an understanding that in the end we are all better off if we work together, follow specific laws, enforce private property rights, etc. That is why it is important to make sure no social class in America feels disenfranchised by society. When people feel like they are being left out, or in cases of extreme inequality, you get a country that looks like Bulgaria or Russia.

[18ToLife]

used to work for food lion stocking groceries for 7.75

complete chit hours, either 3-11pm or you got no hours.
some weeks id get like 15 hours
others id get 35

all your coworkers talk chit, and love to bish about stuff

only good thing is i made a friend that had my back. and all the free food, just dont get caught

so back on topic, i dont think i deserve 15, but i would like atleast 8+
brb making as much as a cashier, but having to stock heavy ass chit all day

[kbrown225]

minmmum wage needs to go up.

[kbrown225]

I said 90% of wall street millionaires. Learn to read. I didn't say 90% of people in wallstreet are millionaires. Where did you get your information from? Out of your ass?


(Iloveyouthoughnohate)

I don't want to refute anything you said (nor did I read anything you said) because I know for a fact that most millionaires (in Wall-street) contribute nothing to society. They just play with imaginary numbers.

My point is, if someone who works retail is asking for a measly 15$ AN HOUR; and some fat millionaire makes millions in a week................................. that person asking for 15$ per hour is low-balling it. Ask for a million an hour. Aim higher. Stop being conditioned and brainwashed into thinking you deserve less than others.

lol u wot m8???

a million an hr eh?

[RCMDCanuck]

Lived in the ghetto
No Father
Made minimum wage as a teen
No car. Walked or rode public buses to work
Joined the Army. Saved my money.
Going to school for free next fall.


Poverty people have no one but themselves to blame for being poor. If you're over the age of 30 and you couldnt scrape up the money for a techincal degree or 2 year program. Kill yourself.

Lol - you don't need to complete a technical degree or a 2 year program to escape poverty. There are one year programs like Administrative Assistants and Medical Office Assistant, the latter which is a pre-req for other medical careers, which pays more than Fast Food and Walmart. There's also the Trades but I'm assuming most of these McDonald workers are single mom types.

The reality is most of the impoverished, unemployed and homeless in North America either suffer from mental illness or something which prevents them from attaining employment (like a criminal record or a lack of a highschool diploma).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eNPAH46oI8

In this guy's case, after his plead video came out in 2011, he had multiple job offers to be a sessional instructor in California and Texas for $1500 a month for 15 hours a week and he was turning down those jobs. Most sessional instructors usually teach at two or three schools, so the guy could have had an income of $3000 or $4500 a month and if he was good he could had made Associate Professor. In this guy's case, his last real job was back in 1990 and he suffers from a mental condition called "lazy-itius".


You can't convince that guy to work. He gets a warm bed every night at the Homeless Shelter, probably has an "Obama Phone", gets $150 in free food through food stamps (probably eats free meals at soup kitchen or whatever), et cetera. He probably has a drinking / drug problem we don't know about and/or he just bums around in downtown Boston begging for money or people watching for entertainment. It's a sad life but it makes him happy I guess. If he was really set on not living on the system then he would had found a job ages ago, serious.

The reality is that people become accustomed to their reality. I know many people who work on minimum wage and they have no desire to change the status quo, as they are comfortable leeching off their parents or their grandparents but eventually those people will end up like the guy in my YouTube clip.

[LiftHeavy85]

have to make at least 20/hr in most states to even get by living on your own let alone living in a nice area with nice things


If they make 15/hr thats a slap in the face to a lot of other low paying jobs and in the end would just cause a in flux of high paying ****ty jobs that would increase the price of living.

[RCMDCanuck]

That's a real cool story and I'm glad you took the time to type all that up but.. You're wrong.


"80 percent of U.S. adults face near-poverty, unemployment, survey find"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3666594.html

Again, let me simplify this for you.

Increasing population + advancement in technologies = less jobs


If you really believe the hundreds of thousands of college graduates that are working minimum wage are doing it because "they have no desire to change and are comfortable leeching off their parents" you're nuttier than squirrel turds.

Which college graduates are working for minimum wage? I know plenty of people with degrees, even worthless art degrees, who are making more than minimum wage. There's no age limit to picking up a trade, either.

We actually have more jobs and more technology than in the past. 20% of the population was still working in agriculture in the 1940s. If people can't find jobs and the welfare state fails - then those people will either die or will learn to pick up agriculture or be willing to relocate for jobs in the rurals - that's the simple fact.

[RCMDCanuck]

have to make at least 20/hr in most states to even get by living on your own let alone living in a nice area with nice things


If they make 15/hr thats a slap in the face to a lot of other low paying jobs and in the end would just cause a in flux of high paying ****ty jobs that would increase the price of living.

Why are you so entitled to think you deserve your own place to live in?

In Europe - they regularly have extended family households encompassing 3 or more generations.

You can argue an one bedroom apartment is expensive - well then I guess you have to rent a room. You can check Craigslist but if you look them up - you'll find that they're not expensive at all (if you can't make a $400 payment on a rented room then you need to drop the liquor / weed / *******).

[icanseeu1985]

lol u wot m8???

a million an hr eh?

**** it dawg, aim high as ****. What do you got to lose? Nothing. Who cares if it happens or not.

[RCMDCanuck]

284,000 College Graduates Had Minimum-Wage Jobs Last Year
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2989540.html

53% of Recent College Grads Are Jobless or Underemployed
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ed-how/256237/

Quarter million people in a country of 350 million people. Yeah real issue (sarcasm).

If someone is jobless or underemployed then it's because they have a chitty Arts degree and refuse every job that comes into their lap.
A lot of the underemployed people out there are useless female ****s who can't work a trade or drive a truck.


I can't believe misc is full of Communists who think just because they partied through a four year degree that they should get a 'Comrade Job' smoking Cigars, Drinking Coffee and discussing Politics and Lolcats with their other Comrades. Not the real world dude, no one put a gun to your head to complete a worthless degree.

[TheApathy]

Yea and there are about ~60+/600 kids in my graduating class making 6 figures upon graduation (they have jobs 8-10 months in advance lol). That's how ridiculous inequality has gotten.

And what? You think those kids that sit on there ass all day, do drugs, drink every day, have unprotected sex, and graduated from high school at 21 deserve to get paid 15/hour rather than people who got HS done at 17-18 and are going to school to continue there education? If anything it's college students that deserve to get paid 15/hour if they decide to work at a walmart or mcdonalds.

I literally have zero sympathy for those lazy fuks that never actually fought for a job and ended up working at mcdonalds.

I'm here busting my ass going to school and working full time (13/hour) and helping my mom out with her bills since my dad left her. I get about 4 hours of sleep almost every night and I have mandatory overtime at work which gets in the way of studying. I never settled for some simpleton job like mcdonalds and never will. Those that grind hard everyday should get raises.

But if someone is working for mcdonalds and is performing really good and has a family to support then yeah I support the idea of raising those people in particulars wages. But the lazy 20-30 year olds that smoke all day and play beerpong every night don't deserve to get their wages increased.

[RCMDCanuck]

Quarter million people? 53%?

You ****ing wot retard?

and the 284k were college graduates working minimum wage jobs, even though that is a real issue there are many more that aren't doing too much better.

I've provided facts, you've provided nothing but your uneducated opinion.

300K people who can't find a career right away isn't an issue.

Those graduates must all be retards. I bet they all live in Los Angeles and Florida and would rather be a bum in their semi-tropical paradise than earn a middle class income in Dakota or Indiania. The problem with the US is all the lazy people, serious.

[RCMDCanuck]

http://www.economist.com/node/3518560



You guys have no idea how true this is. There are some people so far removed from the rest, it's not even funny.



Yea and there are about ~60+/600 kids in my graduating class making 6 figures upon graduation (they have jobs 8-10 months in advance lol). That's how ridiculous inequality has gotten.

Proof? Who makes $100K+ straight out of College?

[TheFourthPooper]

Which college graduates are working for minimum wage? I know plenty of people with degrees, even worthless art degrees, who are making more than minimum wage. There's no age limit to picking up a trade, either.

We actually have more jobs and more technology than in the past. 20% of the population was still working in agriculture in the 1940s. If people can't find jobs and the welfare state fails - then those people will either die or will learn to pick up agriculture or be willing to relocate for jobs in the rurals - that's the simple fact.

If people can't find jobs and the welfare state fails, that is not what would happen. What would happen is what we see in similar countries where all of this already happened. There would be a spike in violent crime, economic stagnation, radical far left/right movements, and a disregard for the law.

[LiftHeavy85]

Why are you so entitled to think you deserve your own place to live in?

In Europe - they regularly have extended family households encompassing 3 or more generations.

You can argue an one bedroom apartment is expensive - well then I guess you have to rent a room. You can check Craigslist but if you look them up - you'll find that they're not expensive at all (if you can't make a $400 payment on a rented room then you need to drop the liquor / weed / *******).

because I dont live in ****ty euro land where everything sucks.

[TheApathy]

80 percent of U.S. adults that are facing near-poverty and unemployment are just lazy.. seems legit

Well if mcdonalds and walmart workers are getting an increase in pay the. So should warehouse workers, truck drivers, janitors, oilers, etc....

[RCMDCanuck]

If people can't find jobs and the welfare state fails, that is not what would happen. What would happen is what we see in similar countries where all of this already happened. There would be a spike in violent crime, economic stagnation, radical far left/right movements, and a disregard for the law.

With the exception of the latter - those are extreme examples. As you pointed out - people in third world countries give no f*cks about the government.

People in third world countries aren't homeless because they all illegally construct their own homes and the government rarely bulldozes or throws people into jail over it. Meanwhile in America - you can build a house that is more stable than one built by carpenters but if it wasn't approved by the city - a bulldozer will be sent in.

The irony is that we didn't have these city zoning laws or regulations in the 1890s and everyone survived - in fact, a lot of farm houses built back then were considered sturdy and today people will pay a premium to buy one.

[TheFourthPooper]

With the exception of the latter - those are extreme examples. As you pointed out - people in third world countries give no f*cks about the government.

People in third world countries aren't homeless because they all illegally construct their own homes and the government rarely bulldozes or throws people into jail over it. Meanwhile in America - you can build a house that is more stable than one built by carpenters but if it wasn't approved by the city - a bulldozer will be sent in.

The irony is that we didn't have these city zoning laws or regulations in the 1890s and everyone survived - in fact, a lot of farm houses built back then were considered sturdy and today people will pay a premium to buy one.

I was mostly talking about some of the Eastern European counties, which might be considered third world, idk. As you said, a "spike in violent crime" isn't an extreme example. Even in America, violent crime is extremely closely tied to lower income areas with little chance for income mobility. The problem is this leaks into other areas and ends up affecting all of us (Chicago for example). Economic stagnation is not an extreme example either, and it is well documented that poor people in countries with extreme inequality are less likely to attempt to better their situation through contributing to society, and more likely to get involved in the black market (Ukraine for example). Again this hurts everyone. Radical political movements are extreme, but they are also the most dangerous, and for that reason they should not be overlooked, even if the chances of stuff like that gaining momentum is very low. But the fact is it has happened before.

The point is, there are costs we have to pay for living in a civilized society, especially if we aren't a small city state like Singapore or something. Subsidizing the poor is one of those costs, even if those people are "lazy."

[mjlehr]

Entry-level jobs should not be expected to support families. If you get the whole cake from the start, what motivation is there to better yourself? You are fools if you think raising minimum wage helps anyone. What happens to the price of your goods when costs go up for Walmart? If any of you have actually run a business, you'd understand that minimum wage dictates much of your costs. The higher the minimum wage, the higher your costs. If this isn't good enough for you, climb the ladder, be a supervisor. When that's not good enough, be a manager. When you have maximized your potential in earnings and that's not good enough, leave to find a better job elsewhere. We are responsible for our own earnings and are free to work as much as we want. If you don't have enough, get more, work more. If you're living outside your means that is your fault. "I wish I could afford an iPhone like that chick in front of me using food stamps." Bottom line: minimum wage is for the entry-level unskilled employee. I guarantee if you want more for yourself, you can get it, IF you work hard enough for it. It's not the guvmint's job to give you money. After all, its the taxpayers that fund the guvmint. Oh, and Obamacare is gonna rape your employer, which is gonna probably hurt you, too in the end. So I'd probably get off my ass and start working two 29-hour a week jobs since Obamacare is destroying the 40-hour work week.. No no no, don't tell me it's the "filthy rich" insurance companies and corporations screwing you by controlling costs. Get off your ass, you
lazy fuark!

[Temuz]

Most likely because it is impossible to survive on even 15$/hr...

depends on how you live

[SherOfPunjab]

Plenty of other jobs out there to make good money.
For example, I am an Engineer in Steel industry.

But there are laborers, steel union workers who work in this industry and make more than $100K. Average pay for them is $25 an hour and with seniority you can go as high as $35. 12 hour shifts and lots of overtime.
Average steel worker works for 25-35 years in the same company + union + benefits.
It's hard work.

Fast food is not the only option. It's an option when you're in high school and want a part time job to have fun while in school. OR you move up the ladder, become a cashier, then a supervisor, manager. My manager in Burger King started working in the kitchen and worked his way up and was making $50K or so..not to mention free food anytime + benefits.

[Considine]

Lived in the ghetto
No Father
Made minimum wage as a teen
No car. Walked or rode public buses to work
Joined the Army. Saved my money.
Going to school for free next fall.


Poverty people have no one but themselves to blame for being poor. If you're over the age of 30 and you couldnt scrape up the money for a techincal degree or 2 year program. Kill yourself.

Thats a whole different issue in itself. Kids shouldn't have to use the army as a temporary job on the same field as going to work on rigs or something.

Not taking anyting away from you, kudos to you brah for doing so much work to do that.


Honestly, it seems like so many people here who are strongly against it, either are a bit blind to the fact some people honestly can't afford school, or those saying "I did it, you should too". Theres so many different situations in peoples lives than can hinder what they want to accomplish, it doesn't make them lazy.

All this minimum wage stuff is just trying to get people to a level where they shouldn't have to crawl to hell and back, grind day in day out to be able to live a somewhat normal life. The whole idea is that people should have a better life in America, and it's a place thats well established to enable that. It's not something that has to drag the country down, but can impower it, it can be a world leading example of how to take care of all its citizens.

It's something Americans should be proud, happy and willing to do, and not feel like it's another person taking money/privilages from them.


It's America, the land of opportunity brahs, I feel like that really got lost along the way.

[Krushkrushkrush]

As someone who works at mcondalds, we don't. we barely do any work honestly. maybe managers deserve 15 but they already get close to that anyway so it wouldn't change much. Plus it'd phuck prices up majorly.

[RCMDCanuck]

Plenty of other jobs out there to make good money.
For example, I am an Engineer in Steel industry.

But there are laborers, steel union workers who work in this industry and make more than $100K. Average pay for them is $25 an hour and with seniority you can go as high as $35. 12 hour shifts and lots of overtime.
Average steel worker works for 25-35 years in the same company + union + benefits.
It's hard work.

Fast food is not the only option. It's an option when you're in high school and want a part time job to have fun while in school. OR you move up the ladder, become a cashier, then a supervisor, manager. My manager in Burger King started working in the kitchen and worked his way up and was making $50K or so..not to mention free food anytime + benefits.

And that's for the steel industry and in the United States at that. Come to Canada and work in Natural Gas or Shale - we have technicians and tradesmen here who work in 12 hour shifts in Northern Alberta and they're taking home as much as $53 a hour and $200K to $300K a year with some extra shifts. Don't forget the Union rules like overtime starts after 35 hours on a 86 hour week, the money adds up.

The Petroleum and Process Engineers actually make less than those guys unless the Engineer is in senior management and then they're making something like 300 - 400 (since there are so few engineer positions available, it is 'dat dere nepotism' to land a job in that niche field).


Of course the thing about this thread is these Fast Food workers are arguably not looking to better themselves. You have these people protesting in Chicago, which is so close to economically strong states like the Dakotas but I doubt these people would go from McDonalds to working at an industrial job. People look down on blue collar in North America, even if blue collar makes good money.

The lazy mentality of most people is exactly the reason why shift workers in Steel, Forestry and Oil & Gas are taking home six figure incomes - because companies struggle in finding workers for those jobs - most people in America / Canada aren't interested in relocating to 'cold areas' and putting on a honest day's work for a honest day's pay.

[nickh04]

lol at these urban youths thinking that mcdonalds will support a ****in family. working these minimum wage jobs should be used as a stepping stone. if you consider working at mcdonalds a career, then you should probably rethink your life

[mjlehr]

All this minimum wage stuff is just trying to get people to a level where they shouldn't have to crawl to hell and back, grind day in day out to be able to live a somewhat normal life. The whole idea is that people should have a better life in America, and it's a place thats well established to enable that. It's not something that has to drag the country down, but can impower it, it can be a world leading example of how to take care of all its citizens.

-AND-

It's something Americans should be proud, happy and willing to do, and not feel like it's another person taking money/privilages from them.

Let's say they do more than double minimum wage... How long before $15 an hour is "measley"? Not to mention, that depreciates the dollar so much for those of us who worked hard to earn more than that....do we get raises, too? Doesn't that undermine the efforts of everyone who worked to get where they are? You didn't build that... Obama did. I say we make minimum wage $1000 an hour so that "no one will ever be without." And I'll see you at Walmart spending $20,000 per week on groceries. My example sounds extreme... yes. But where do we draw the line? I promise that prices will go up and $15 will eventually not be enough.

[FearThisjake]

Nobody should look at flipping burgers as a way to live independently with no compromises. That's the problem. If you want to have your own place, have a car to get to work, buy groceries, pay your utilities, and have extra for pointless sh!t, you better realize that having a job that even kids can get is not the best way to go about it.

this x1000000000

[BlackRadio]

It would ruin this country. I was a carpenter for 4 years and made $15 an hour. What would happen if walmart started offering $15 to stand at the door and greet people? Brb, everyone making under 35k a year trying to work at McDlds or Walmart

[magog704]

Lets all just cut the BS and talk about the problem at hand.

The issue is $15 an hour is what people need now to survive 100% on their own. Hell you can barely survive on $15 an hour after taxes have been taken care of. This is a FACT. Obviously this would mess up the economy even more if it were to happen. So its all ****ed. Everything is ****ed. We're all ****ed, srs.

you can survive on zero dollars.