I don't care if I'm hungry enough to start chewing on my own leg, I will NEVER EVER EVER again spend even 1cent at a McDonald's ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

McDonald’s to employees: Break your food into small pieces to feel full and sell your Christmas presents for cash
By Travis Gettys
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 10:42 EST

The fast-food giant McDonald’s is urging employees to break up food into smaller pieces to feel full or sell their Christmas presents for extra money.

The restaurant chain made the recommendations on its “McResource” employee website to help workers manage stress, health and finances.

The company recommended “breaking food into pieces” to feel more full on less food, singing away stress and taking two vacations a year to lower the risk of heart attack, as well as “selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.”

The recommendations were publicized Tuesday by the group Low Pay Is Not OK, which advocates higher wages for fast-food workers, but McDonald’s claims the advice was taken out of context.

“This is an attempt by an outside organization to undermine a well-intended employee assistance resource website by taking isolated portions out of context,” the company said in a statement, noting that the site’s content was provided by an independent company.

The advocacy group released a recording last month of a McDonald’s worker calling the company’s McResources hotline to ask for assistance, and the operators urged the 10-year employee to seek help from food pantries or apply for federal food stamp or Medicaid assistance.

That same employee, Nancy Salgado, was arrested last month after confronting McDonald’s USA President Jeff Stratton during a speech in Chicago, saying her $8.25 hourly wages left her unable to afford shoes for her children.

A study published about a week before Salgado’s phone call found that 52 percent of families of front line fast-food workers were enrolled in one or more public assistance programs, compared with 25 percent of the workforce as a whole.

The study found that taxpayers spend about $7 billion each year subsidizing the wages and benefits of fast-food workers.

Watch this video posted online by LowPay NotOK:


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/20/mcdonalds-to-employees-break-your-food-into-small-pieces-to-feel-full-and-sell-your-christmas-presents-for-cash/

I think the slant is little biased, taking some of the suggestions out of context. It would be great if fast food places paid their employees more. They are making decent profits and in many cases could afford to provide additional pay or benefits to employees. However their business model has always relied on part time entry level employees. Typically in fast food chains the idea is to keep costs low- you don't want to pay $8 for a hamburger at Mcdonalds. However in today's economy people are taking these jobs who need to work full time and get higher wages and benefits to support their families. In other times this population would not be working at a fast food establishment. There are better companies to use as bad examples, huge corporations that exploit their workforce, have reduced full time jobs to part time jobs, have expunged older higher earning employees to replace them with multiple low paid part time workers while cashing in big.

I'll go to McDonald's and would give it more business actually if I could. Taqir, a black male student in my sociology class, told me it's the number of hours employee's work and not the base pay that is the problem. If the restaurant's were busier they've give their employees more hours and I would truly prefer my students work at McDonald's than at drug dealing.

There are very few jobs out there for minimally skilled young adults. We are a shore community so service jobs are plentiful and pay well in the summer season. Waitress Dawn said she worked 55 hours at Margaritaville during the summer. She's now scheduled for 8. She's applied everywhere and there just aren't jobs anywhere else.

In class we talked about the poorest and most violent city in America; Camden, NJ. All industry (Campbell's Soup and RCA) has left there so it's a violent drug den. No industry will go there, but the population of 77K is poor and hungry and for the most part drug-addicted.

There have to be low wage service jobs for people or there will be no jobs at all.

Odd, but there are no $8 hamburgers at Canadian McDonalds and the employees get around $10. an hour.
Are Canucks 25% better managers than USians?

The cost of living and taxes are higher in Canada. Factor that in and you have an almost on-par salary. So, no Canadians are worth 25% more. They need every penny of that just to break even.

As for the cost of a burger, it is higher here. The US $1 value menu costs $1.39 here. That is but one example.

Everything in Canada costs more, so $10/hr there buys what $8/hr here buys. Your sales taxes are higher in most places as well.

I get what both queenie and Kathy are saying ~ but I disagree on a few things ~ the entire economy has changed and many if not most businesses have been forced into changing their business plans as well ~ some, including McDonald's and WalMart [both Fortune 500 companies and both enjoying profits in the billions], have chosen to not adjust with the times and the economy ~ $7.25/hour is under $300/week, under $1,200/month, and under $14,000/year [and those number are IF the employee works 40 hours/week and takes no unpaid days off for illness or vacation] ~ those numbers are before taxes are deducted ~ if companies raking in those profits can't pay a living wage to their employees, they are doing something very wrong ~

queenie is correct that many companies do the same things, but we don't hear about it ~ for me personally, what I really refuse to support is the attitude ~ I was steaming as I was reading the "advice" on the McDonald's employee help site ~ will my choosing to "boycott" hurt their bottom lines? ~ absolutely not ~ but I feel better if I don't support them ~ and I won't ~

Sooz

Ya think?

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Most major cities are expensive. Where there are pockets of reasonably priced homes, there are usually not a lot of jobs.

Referring to this particular statement: "Everything in Canada costs more..."

Yes I still believe everything in Canada costs more. You can get comparable property as cheap in certain parts of the US. I can also compare properties in Toronto with properties in Newton MA where it is hard tobelieve you get more for your money.

But, in Australia the minimum wage for adults is $16.37 for adults and even a 16 year old gets $7.74. And that's for full-time workers, who also get 4 weeks a year holiday on full pay and would be entitled to a certain amount of fully paid sick leave.

A casual worker gets an extra 24% per hour.

I never eat them, but the highest figure I could find for a big Mac meal (ie. with fries and a coke) was $9.

Our local shop sells a much better burger for $6.

And you can get a decent meal (far more than I can eat) at one of our local Pubs for $7
http://stkildahotel.wix.com/st-kilda-hotel#!menu/cm65

But CM, everything in Murrica is bigger, better, cheaper, etc., etc. than it is in the rest of the world.

Well, except ....
Nah, its too late at night to try and type that list ...

This is not at all about anyhting being bigger or better anywhere. It is about not being able to make a direct dollar comparison among places with different economic circumstances. There are too many variables to just say its 5 dollars here and 10 dollars there when they are not equivalent
Do you think McDonald's is a better and more ethical employer in Canada or Australia or are they adjusting to local economic conditions, such as labor laws, labor markets, product availsbility and costs?

I disagree with Sooz that Mcdonald's should pay more because a different kind of worker is now coming to them for jobs.I think there are huge corporations owned by the likes of the Koch brothers that took lucrative full time jobs and benefits away from the kabor force to line their already over full pckets and that is where I will direct my anger and criticism. Fast food makes money but they have not significantly changed their business practices to increase already obscene profits. Suggesting that you can raise cash by selling unwanted items on eBay is not inherently offensive.

McDonald's corporate profits — which totaled $5.5 billion last year — and workers' wages. According to WOCC, the median wage of cooks, cashiers and crew is $8.94 an hour.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/1 ... single-mom

Obscene, immoral, unacceptable.

Really?


McDonald's super-sizes CEO pay during tough times
CEO Don Thompson sees package jump from $4.1M to $13.8M

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mcdonal ... -1.1337177

I just want to correct queenie's interpretation of my prior post ~ I didn't intend to give the impression I see the need to up the minimum wage "... because a different kind of worker is now coming to them for jobs." ~ I see the need to up the minimum wage because the entire economy has changed ~ I'm not sure what the current federal poverty line is, but I'm willing to bet $14,000/year is below it ~ I also see companies who pay their employees poverty wages as getting "corporate welfare", which is likely much higher in value than the poverty benefit programs cost ~ McDonald's employee help program also advised employees to sign up for all federal benefit programs available to them ... which are funded by taxpayer dollars ~ so part of the company's bloated profits come at OUR expense ~

I'm also furious about Wal-Mart asking its poorly-paid employees to "share" via food donations to fellow poorly-paid employees ~ I recognize there is a finite limit of "value" for one's labors ~ but my personal choice is to not support what I see as craven and immoral behavior just because a company can get away with it ~

Sooz

I think the bottom line is that wages have not kept pace with inflation except in a few areas/job markets. Those that have are usually the jobs that need degrees and are a small percentage of the total labor pool.

McDonald's here are locally owned. We drive through for my oatmeal and diet coke every Saturday and Sunday. We know the workers there and I would absolutely hate for them to be on the street because the location closed down due to lack of business. I will repeat there are very few non-seasonal jobs out there for the unskilled labor forces.

NJ has gas station attendants who make minimum wage, and Jeff spoke to a gas-station owner about it once and he said NJ better not change the law to self pump because this is the only job these guys can handle. We tip gas station attendants.

There are no factory jobs here. Low paying service jobs are the only game in town.

I am furious about the WalMart thing as well. No excuse for that company not to provide assistance to employees in need. All WalMarts are corporate. Many McDonalds are franchised. WalMarts corporate profits far outweigh McDonalds. I have no problem with hiking the minimum wage and unfortunately it will likely result in poor people having to pay more for things they need at WalMart and not being able to afford taking their family out to Mcdonald's

I have no problem with hiking the minimum wage and unfortunately it will likely result in poor people having to pay more for things they need at WalMart and not being able to afford taking their family out to Mcdonald's

And that is the big lie, repeated over and over again, even though it has been shown to be false over and over again.

We have an independent judicial tribunal that determines the minimum wage every year after hearing submissions from "interested" parties. Typically, but not invariably, those hearings result in an increase in the minimum wage and the CEO's all wring their hands at the terrible economic consequences, but happily watch their own incomes expand at a higher rate.

The terrible economic consequences never occur for a number of very simple reasons. When the minimum wage increases peoples income increases and that income tends to increase for all workers. There is a flow-on effect. The cost of labor, even in service jobs, is only one of many factors determining the cost of goods and services, so the inflationary effects are rarely, if ever, as great as the income increases. In other words "poor people" are now in a better position to buy the things they need. Effectively what has been done is to transfer more of the (growing) income pool to poorer sections of the community and people in that sector spend their money on very different things to people in higher income groups. They are, for instance, more likely to spend them on basic necessities and the sale of these tends to boost employment because they are often locally produced and locally sold.

MacDonald's and other corporations can only get away with it because you let them, but it is their blind greed that destroys economies, not the pittance paid to people at the bottom of the pile.

Ditto CM.

There'd be no need for minimum wage legislation if there was a legal ratio between the highest paid employee in a corporation and the lowest paid... say 50:1.

That will never happen oskar.

The problem of minimum wage in the US is one of supply and demand. There are more people who need the low wage jobs than jobs available. When they raise the minimum wage they will cut the position into two or three and hire two or three people at 15 or 20 hours a week to circumvent providing benefits.