New York fast food workers to strike. Demand $15 an hour...

I don't really have a problem with this, and I'm someone who has at least somewhat of a soft spot for business and Wall St.  First of all, living expenses in New York are insane, so all the middle of America people commenting don't really get that element.  Also, I don't see the problem with trying or fighting for better wages.  Imo, that i being capitalistic and business minded.  Sure, they may lose the fight, but I say let em try.

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

They're being ridiculous. Everyone knows that fast food jobs have horrible pay.

There are plenty of jobs with better advancement prospects than fast food. Its a little harder to find them in the current economy ,but its possible . Anyone going into the fast food industry and expecting to become rich is delusional.

UnknownSniper65

You can't take a crap job and expect anything ,but crap pay.

$15 an hr is still pretty crappy lol:P.

[QUOTE="Aljosa23"]

[QUOTE="Diablo-B"]I am always amazed how angry people get whenever someone else tries to negotiate better wages for themselves. Every employee should be trying to get better working conditions. Whats wrong with trying? No wonder the lower and middle class is struggling so much. Somehow we have turned into a country of management and wealth sympathizers.

 

"Oh no. These peasants are trying to get better pay from their bosses in a billion dollar industry so they can go from being way under the poverty line to only being slightly below the poverty line. Oh dear God the humanity. What is this world coming too!!!"

 

Some of you guys are so ignorant of the real world.hoola

People here seem to lack empathy and humanity for ones who are worse off. It's sad

It is a matter of the decisions someone has made in their life.  It is possible for a young single person to live a decent life (financially) working a minimum or near minimum wage job for 30-40 hours a week.  There are houses all around the USA for $20,000.  The mortgage on that could be as low as $150 a month.  Add electric, gas, car loan/insurance, and food and you might be up to $600 or $700 a month if you live frugally.  That is just over $7000 a year on the necessities and if we assume they only make $12,000 a year (a very low estimate) then that is $4800 that can be spent on other things like Health Insurance.  Here is an example of a family living on $14,000 per year, although, their fugality is extreme and they have paid off their house and cars.  http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/2012/06/how-does-she-live-on-budget.html

Seems silly to me; fast food workers are easy to come by.

Blueresident87

On second thought, I think that this whole thing is a little less ridiculous when considering that this is NYC.

The fast-food places here already pay $15/h.FrostyPhantasm

iirc, that kinda happens in boomtowns tho (recall you mentioning that you are in one)

I'm not surprised condsidering a closet-sized apartment in New York would probably cost twice as much as the 2 bedroom I'm paying for in Iowa.General_X

+1 for Iowa.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"] None of the workers striking are expecting to get rich working fast food. This is a ridiculous characterization of what they're trying to achieve. TacticalDesire

You can't take a crap job and expect anything ,but crap pay.

$15 an hr is still pretty crappy lol:P.

Good for them

[QUOTE="TacticalDesire"]

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

You can't take a crap job and expect anything ,but crap pay.

Nick3306

$15 an hr is still pretty crappy lol:P.

Currently, the median pay for the nearly 50,000 fast food workers in New York City is $9 an hour, or $18,500 a year, according to the New York Labor Department. That's about $4,500 lower than Census Bureau's poverty income threshold level of $23,000 for a family of four.

junglist101

I'm curious why the bolded was even included.

One shouldn't be having children while working at a fast food place, they wont be able to support their kids.
Yet they do, and now they're demanding that one dude working full time at Mcdonalds should make enough to support a family of four?

what a joke.

seems like they're following This crap website

I am always amazed how angry people get whenever someone else tries to negotiate better wages for themselves. Every employee should be trying to get better working conditions. Whats wrong with trying? No wonder the lower and middle class is struggling so much. Somehow we have turned into a country of management and wealth sympathizers.

 

"Oh no. These peasants are trying to get better pay from their bosses in a billion dollar industry so they can go from being way under the poverty line to only being slightly below the poverty line. Oh dear God the humanity. What is this world coming too!!!"

 

Some of you guys are so ignorant of the real world.Diablo-B

These people are complaining that their minimum wage, no experience needed jobs, don't pay enough that they can support their families of 4-6 kids.
Isn't such a thing obvious after the first kid? Or even before that?
Try buying a house on a $9/hr job, let alone raising children and helping them pay their way through university.

There's a huge difference between an entry level job (fast food), and job that you can support a family on.

This is the worst idea I've heard since switching over to the euro. 

2 problems
-fast food does not have a monopsony in the new york metropolitan labor market. There are tens of thousands of businesses competing against each other for labor in the market; the market for unskilled labor in NYC is perfectly competitive. Firms and workers are price-takers, not price-makers. 

-Fast food is not exactly a massive capital investment. An owner can really, really easily just pack up all the capital and move it somewhere else where there aren't insane demands. 

This is the worst idea I've heard since switching over to the euro. 

2 problems
-fast food does not have a monopsony in the new york metropolitan labor market. There are tens of thousands of businesses competing against each other for labor in the market; the market for unskilled labor in NYC is perfectly competitive. Firms and workers are price-takers, not price-makers. 

-Fast food is not exactly a massive capital investment. An owner can really, really easily just pack up all the capital and move it somewhere else where there aren't insane demands. 

radicalcentrist

[QUOTE="CongressManStan"]No offense to these workers, but their skills are not worth that much. You have people who hold more responsibilities with other companies making that much money an hour. Murderstyle75

Terrible, terrible attitude. Good luck with that.

[QUOTE="Murderstyle75"][QUOTE="CongressManStan"]No offense to these workers, but their skills are not worth that much. You have people who hold more responsibilities with other companies making that much money an hour. SpartanMSU

Terrible, terrible attitude. Good luck with that.

These fat cats are tyring to force their employers top pay them $28K a year?  The horror...

/sarcasm

I worked at McDonald's, you definitely deserve around minimum wage if you're working there. They purposely make your job very easy.

I will say that the manager's get horrible pay. Shift managers where I worked started at like $10 an hour. They didn't have much responsiblity though. One manager above that told me she made like $13 an hour. That's crazy considering how much work the managers do.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"] None of the workers striking are expecting to get rich working fast food. This is a ridiculous characterization of what they're trying to achieve. TacticalDesire

You can't take a crap job and expect anything ,but crap pay.

$15 an hr is still pretty crappy lol:P.

I don't see how you deserve $15 bucks at any fast food restaurant.

Not to sound like an ass, but we have mentally retarded people working at my local McDonald's across from my university and they do the job just as efficiently as someone with an average IQ. If someone with autism can do you job effortlessly you don't get $15. Fightingfan

I worked at McDonald's, you definitely deserve around minimum wage if you're working there. They purposely make your job very easy.cain006

I can't think of anything as intellectually degenerative than subornative, monotonous labor. Many people in this society can't do the things they love because the system won't let them. I believe they are right to demand more pay.

I can't think of anything as intellectually degenerative than subornative, monotonous labor. Many people in this society can't do the things they love because the system won't let them. I believe they are right to demand more pay.

RushKing

[QUOTE="RushKing"]

I can't think of anything as intellectually degenerative than subornative, monotonous labor. Many people in this society can't do the things they love because the system won't let them. I believe they are right to demand more pay.

cain006

[QUOTE="cain006"]

[QUOTE="RushKing"]

I can't think of anything as intellectually degenerative than subornative, monotonous labor. Many people in this society can't do the things they love because the system won't let them. I believe they are right to demand more pay.

RushKing

Is 9 dollars a hour is enough to fund a actual career? The fact of the matter remains that having a certain amount of funds is a essential requirement to actually progressing in life.

[QUOTE="RushKing"][QUOTE="cain006"]What's your solution? Working at McDonald's is as easy as a job gets.

cain006

greedy fcks Lonelynight

Greedy? Minimum wage for an adult Downunder is $15.96/hour

Fire them and hire other people who aren't morons.TheWalkingGhost

althought thats a ridiculous demand, i do understand their frustration. i would hate working fast food, especially in new york. ppl are really rude and complain a lot.

Workers demanding to be treated like human beings and make a livable wage? Heaven forbid. 

[QUOTE="cain006"]

[QUOTE="RushKing"] Would it be easy to spend your whole life starring at a ceiling?RushKing

So, a fast food employee earns 1500$ a month in NYC? Here you probably earn like... 100. 150 at max. I understand that there's a huge difference when it comes to rent, taxes, bills and buying food. The sum still shocks me since it would be the salary of a high-school teacher with some good years of experience and a doctorate. Ah well. Just for the record, how much does a loaf of bread cost in NYC?iskeethunters

[QUOTE="RushKing"][QUOTE="cain006"]No, but time actually goes by pretty fast when you're working. You may be doing basically the same things all the time, but you're constantly doing something. And you're completely ignoring that there's coworkers to talk to while you're working, fun coworkers matter more than what you're actually doing in a job like that.

cain006

[QUOTE="cain006"]

[QUOTE="RushKing"] What if it was your job to stare at a ceiling along side two other people for 8 hours a day to make ends meet. Would you be happy?RushKing

Honestly if all you do is work at mcdonald's, you're f*cking lazy. I worked an average of like 16 hours on the weekends alone during school.

ohhh god...welcome to a $17 Big mac..

[QUOTE="RushKing"][QUOTE="cain006"]No, but a job at McDonald's shouldn't be what you want to do the rest of your life.cain006

[QUOTE="TheWalkingGhost"]Fire them and hire other people who aren't morons.rastotm

lol Lost cause. 

[QUOTE="cain006"]

[QUOTE="RushKing"] I'm sure many of these people don't want to work at fast food their whole life, but the market won't let them do what they want to do with their life. Because the job they desire isn't available or out of reach.

RushKing

unless its a math/engineering degree then you will be swarmed with jobs.

either way i hope these dumb sh!ts are all fired or,,,, wait lets reduce their pay by 60% instead, undeserving leeches.

if these people think they are a respected member of the working class they are wrong. they arent factory workers, they arent manual laborers, they arent farm hands and they arent daycare workers...ect, they are burger flipper's. And if they think that they deserve pay any where close to the actual working class then f@ck them

[QUOTE="RushKing"][QUOTE="cain006"]It's not like if you work at mcdonald's, that's all you can do. Go to community college or something when you're off. Learn about cars, get in with a car shop, etc. You just gotta work your ass off.

frannkzappa

unless its a math/engineering degree then you will be swarmed with jobs.

Yes and no, from my understanding, the market in terms of getting a job isn't bad, but the pay isn't damn near as good as people make it out to be.  Plus, progessing up the ladder as an engineer becomes increasingly harder, and many people never really come close to maxing out their salaries in a lot of engineering fields.

[QUOTE="TacticalDesire"]

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

You can't take a crap job and expect anything ,but crap pay.

cain006

$15 an hr is still pretty crappy lol:P.

Meh, if you think that's good money than that's fine.  I'm not going to tell you otherwise.  I don't think there is any sense in getting into an argument over what each of us subjectively views as good earning.

[QUOTE="RushKing"][QUOTE="cain006"]It's not like if you work at mcdonald's, that's all you can do. Go to community college or something when you're off. Learn about cars, get in with a car shop, etc. You just gotta work your ass off.

frannkzappa

unless its a math/engineering degree then you will be swarmed with jobs.

either way i hope these dumb sh!ts are all fired or,,,, wait lets reduce their pay by 60% instead, undeserving leeches.

if these people think they are a respected member of the working class they are wrong. they arent factory workers, they arent manual laborers, they arent farm hands and they arent daycare workers...ect, they are burger flipper's. And if they think that they deserve pay any where close to the actual working class then f@ck them