Fast Food minimum wage increase... what has the been the effect?

[WarGamer]

40+ years ago, I worked at a McDonalds...

A long 20 foot counter with 6-8 cash registers, each dutifully manned by a High School age employee working their first job.

We also had a Manager and Shift Manager in the restaurant along with one or two dining room workers, cleaning tables and watching the restrooms.

There were 2-3 dudes on the grills, a couple working the fry station and a couple at the drive thru.

I think they ran the restaurant with a staff of around 20 at any one time.

Now they run with 5-6 at a time

Here is SoCal...

Their minimum wage recently went to $20/hr

The restaurants are quite different. Gone are the young kids. It's mostly age 30-40 folks with experience in the hospitality industry.

The restaurants now have 1-2 cash registers with no one manning them... they have touch screens to place orders.

If you want a pack of ketchup you might have to flag someone down to get it.

What was the net effect?

A livable wage for some, elimination of starter jobs for many... and a reduction in customer service and vastly higher prices.

Was that the plan?

[W_HAMILTON]

1. You like posting local prices...

I live in a state where the minimum wage is $7.25.

Do you think your Big Macs are about 3x the cost of mine?

[WarGamer]

4. I'll take a pic next time I'm in... don't know the price.

The combo with med fries and drink might be... $13?

[WarGamer]

5. This is totally my era right here... uniforms, hats, girl's hair style...

[D_Master81]

18. Minimum wage vs actual pay

I live where it’s $7.25 but no one actually pays that. It’s $14/hr to start at McDonalds, $17 at Target. Just took the family to McDonalds last weekend and it was almost $40 for the 4 of us. Ridiculous might as well go have better food at a sit down restaurant

[dpibel]

19. Then you can't blame the price on minimum wage

If MickeyD is paying nearly double minimum wage, how can minimum wage be the cause of the prices you find ridiculous.

For that matter, if you can feed 4 for $40 at a sit-down restaurant, you're living in a different decade than I am.

[Silent Type]

2. Locally, staff has been thin since Covid. They are making a little more than before, but not much.

We still have fast food places staffed with teenagers, but some of the others do tend to hire older folks.

I like older staffers because they understand “no cheese” means no cheese. Don’t think the younger ones have ever had a hamburger without cheese, they often ignore my plain request.

[dpibel]

3. MINIMUM WAGE KILLS JOBS!!!!11!

Somebody help me out.

I know I've heard this somewhere.

Where....?

Not to mention that there may be one or two other employment situations that have changed in the last 40 years.

Not to mention that I might question the recall of someone who remembers McDonalds having 6 to 8 staffed cash registers. That must have been some massive Mickey!

[Kingofalldems]

16. Republicans.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Our local McDonald's hasn't changed staff that much.

Still mostly teenagers. I stopped by on my way to class, and could see 5 staff members, and I couldn't see the grill area. We never had more than three functioning registers, but most of the time only two are staffed. I prefer the kiosk, since I can make sure my order is correct - and I can also see I have options that weren't apparent when giving my order to the person running the cash register.

Prices are higher, but they didn't go up in connection with a change in minimum wage, or with shifting to kiosk ordering - they wen tup following COVID - pretty much the same as every place else.

[WarGamer]

7. ours looks like this

[Ms. Toad]

8. That's the physical layout, not the staff.

Ours has roughly the same staff as it always has - except that the people taking orders and getting drinks are taking payment and getting drinks. Perhaps down one staff member per shift, aside from peak hours. (I haven't been there during peak hours, so I don't know what staffing looks like at during hose hours.) And fewer shifts - since post-COVID pretty much everything has cut down on hours.

[haele]

17. I've been at a local McDonalds franchise off and on for 11 years-

Good management, clean store, and reasonably happy looking staff. They may have gone down by one employee per shift, but that's mainly due to the recent change to the kiosk system.
Overall, the minimum wage hike doesn't seem to have changed much more than the prices, and even then, they're on par with inflation.

[David__77]

9. Generally speaking, labor should be expensive.

Among other benefits, this encourages increasing productive output.

[WarGamer]

11. Since we're at $20/hr for all fast food employees...

They've got high quality people. I read an article in the LA Times a while back that said franchisees were making the most of the payroll they have, hiring older (30-40) experienced cooks and folks with service industry backgrounds. Small crews juggle the drive-thru and dining room.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. "Starter jobs" is boss speak.

You could say, "A constantly precarious labor pool that gets low wages, minimal benefits and unpredictable schedules" but "starter jobs" takes fewer words.

[WarGamer]

13. Well... I worked at a ice cream store in the early 80's for 3.35/hr... maybe 17 years old...

Then quit and went to work at McD because it's where most of my friends worked.

I understand WHY you don't like the term "starter job" but that's what it was in reality.

I met a future wife there...

It was very cool...

[WarGamer]

15. The other thing....

Once they announced the increased minimum wage, they brought in the kiosk ordering stations and cut back on crew.

The cooking is more automated, too...

I used to be a "grill man" so I'd reach into the freezer box and grab 6 frozen patties in each hand plop them on the grill, sear them with the heavy metal squisher and salt them... slap a timer. Flip them at the timer and pull the meat onto buns to build the burgers.

The simplicity of that time of life was marvelous...

Then I went to college, got real jobs and families and blah blah blah... and life got complex.

[Aristus]

12. The McDonald's where I worked the late shift offered table service at breakfast.

This was back in the Eighties. Employees, including the mother of one of my high school classmates, would circulate through the dining area, refilling coffee and making everyone feel at home.

The McDonald’s closest to where I live now looks like a prison dining facility. There’s a sign at the entryway that is a slightly more polite rendition of what our drill sergeants told us at chow time in Basic Training: “Shut up, eat up, and get out!”

Nice little corporate dystopia we’re living in…

[WarGamer]

14. I almost forgot about that... yes refilling coffee in the dining room.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. That was going to happen anyway.

Those jobs were going away at living wage or slave wage (well maybe not slave wage - don’t give them any ideas).

[misanthrope]

21. If the workers were all high schoolers

then who was working during the breakfast and lunch shifts when the kids should have been in school?

[WarGamer]

27. WELL... MY SHIFTS WERE MOSTLY HIGH SCHOOLERS, LOL...

Ya know, afternoons, evenings and weekends.

[edhopper]

22. Your argument is spurious

40 years ago the minimum wage was $3.35, that is equal to $13 to $15 dollars today when inflation is calculated.
MW is $7.25 today, barely double after 40 years!
The higher wage in California takes into account the higher cost of living and the higher average wages in that State, which is double some of the poorer States.
You also don't take into account that ALL employers are doing more with less workers.

As someone who is 70, I can only say, Okay Boomer.

[Johonny]

23. That is McDonalds,

However, Kanes is fully staffed, no touch screens.

Meanwhile, McDonalds has dropped prices, brought in apps and deals . . . My officemate eats for 5 to 6 bucks at McDonalds off the deals menu daily.

Your story is far from complete.

[Johnny2X2X]

24. There are no shortage of starter jobs still

$20 is a basic income and $20 today is the equivalent of $6.50 in 1984.

Nothing upsets working people more than other working people getting a basic income. It's crazy. McDonald's profits around $10B per year, they can afford to pay workers a meager wage.

And McDonald's didn;'t eliminate jobs because of wages, they eliminated jobs because that's what companies do, they get more efficient, they need less cashiers than before because they have less in dining room traffic.

[Sympthsical]

25. It's more canaries in the automation coal mine than the wage

At the moment, I'm working walking distance from a fast food hub and have been sampling around during lunch hours and things. Even during rush, it's one person at the counter. It seems the expectation is either to order using their mobile app on the phone (which is incentivized with rewards programs and special deals) or using the touch kiosks in store.

So typically you see one person in front handing out food or taking the cash orders, one person in the drive thru, and then three or four people in the kitchen.

Yes, I remember my teen years at McD's, too. Five of us in the kitchen, two to three up front, two working the drive thru, then the shift manager who floated around doing this and that.

Those days are over as customer service is streamlined and automated. It's the same at places like Safeway. They'll have one or two actual checkouts manned by cashiers open, while easily half the customers go through the self-checkout area. Same at Target. Same at CVS.

As far as price goes, it is significantly more expensive than pre-pandemic. No doubt about that one. I typically just get whatever deal is happening. A $2.50 McMuffin the other day and a $2 double taco at Taco Bell yesterday. Things like that. Full meals that used to be $5 are frequently in the $10-12 range.

If you really want some sticker shock, go to a Subway and see how much a footlong is going for. There's one next to a mom and pop deli by my house we like. The deli will give you this massive chicken shwarma or gyros plate dinner for $13. The bag's heavier than a bowling ball, I swear. Amazing food, easily broken into two or three meals.

Cheaper than the Subway next door. I legitimately do not know why anyone goes there.

[JI7]

26. Many young people are tryng to make money online

from selling to social media .

There are many jobs out there that young people can do. There is no shortage of these (higher) minimum wage jobs.

Many places are having difficulty hiring and keeping people.