The Faults And Foibles Of Fast Food Foolishness

Last week in Philadelphia, PA, and approximately thirty other cities, protests were held against McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Papa John's, Taco Bell, Arby's, Hardees, and several other fast food companies to highlight the “low wages” these companies pay their employees. My first thought was probably the same as yours: Here we go again...

What are they seeking, you ask? The protesters are calling for a living wage of $15 an hour.

Yes, you read that correctly - $15 per hour.   Now people are calling on these companies to raise wages to a point where people can support a family off of them.

My question to you is – do you notice anything “special” about these companies?  I do – there is not a single one which requires more than a minimum of skill whatsoever to work for them.   I'm sorry, but it's true.   You can quibble all you want, but having worked fast food before, along with a plethora of other jobs, I have firsthand knowledge that minimum skills are required.

These are entry-level jobs, primarily intended for young people.  You're certainly not supposed to raise a family with the pay scale that working these jobs begets.  They're for entry (hence the term “entry-level.”  Do you get it, liberals?) into the workforce.  These jobs are normally used as a stepping-stone to a better job with better pay after you put in some time and effort.  You acquire the better job and pay with experience and/or education.  Most people don't just walk into a high paying job, and certainly not working at fast food restaurants when just about anyone can walk in off the street and do that job.

I know that there are people who have been laid off from well-paying jobs, and are forced to accept anything they can take, including flipping burgers, just to put food on the table.  Most of them realize that they're just marking time until something better opens up for them.  This isn't about them.  This is about those who are doing nothing to improve their situation themselves, instead relying on either the government to mandate a minimum wage increase - which will cause even further destruction of jobs and the workforce than has already been done – or to put pressure on the companies to raise their pay far beyond what those jobs are actually worth.

Anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty, and a basic grasp of business economics, will tell you that any and all costs incurred by a company will eventually get passed on to the consumer. It's almost an immutable law of business.  The reason for that is quite simple:  Every business that exists operates primarily to make a profit (that really IS an immutable law of business). In order to make that profit, costs must be passed on, and some of those cost is the wages that are paid to employees.   When wages go up, prices must necessarily go up, if only to keep the profit margin (again, profit is the main motivating factor for a business to exist).  In fact, the only entity that remains operating without turning a profit is a government, which should tell you pretty much everything you need to know right there.

There are many different theories about how wages for employees are determined.  I won't go into them all, but the one that seems to make the most sense to me is a two-fold one:

1. The more workers there are that want, or can do, a particular job, the less that job will pay. It's simple “supply and demand.”  The more “supply,” the less “demand” to pay a higher wage.
2. A worker's skill set, experience, education, and/or union membership play a significant role in determining a salary for a given worker or job.  The more skilled and experienced, the more educated one is, the more likely it is one will earn more for a given job.   Trade unions tend to skew this towards inflating wages beyond a job's true value, however.

To add a little context to that $15 per hour figure that the protesters are seeking, I am presently employed as a machinist.  My pay rate is $13.42 per hour.  My job requires a decent amount of skill to perform; certainly more than what's required to operate a deep fryer, microwave, or even a grill. I was, until recently, the lowest paid machinist in the shop, for two simple reasons:   I had the least amount of experience, and the least amount of skill.  I don't, however, begrudge and protest against those who get paid more than I do.  I work hard to gain the experience that I need so that eventually I, too, will receive a higher wage.

I know I'm probably going to catch hell for this post, but I don't care.  When it comes to wages, the market pays what said market is willing to bear.  Yes, there are high and low extremes, but economics is economics.  Think about it like this: You wouldn't go spend $800 for a flatscreen TV that you can get elsewhere for $350, would you?  Why, then, should employers be *expected* to pay more than a job is worth paying?  Yes, it really IS that simple.

Those protesting against the pay that they voluntarily agreed to receive will be amongst the first to wonder why their place of employment closed down, should they get their wish of $15 per hour.  While I don't want to see anyone lose their job, especially in the Obama economy, I think it would be a valuable lesson to those willing to learn from it, as well as a delicious irony. ~ Hunter