Huff Post redacts itself regarding McDonald's wages

On Monday, The Huffington Post published a story entitled "Doubling McDonald's Salaries Would Cause Your Big Mac To Cost Just 68¢ More." HuffPost has since learned that the research used as the basis of the story contains significant errors that cast doubts on its claims. This story has replaced the one originally published in this space.

The story drew on data presented by Arnobio Morelix, an undergraduate student from The University Of Kansas who identified himself as a researcher for the school. In an interview, Morelix told the HuffPost that only 17.1 percent of McDonald's revenue goes toward salaries and benefits, meaning that for every dollar McDonald's earns, a little more than 17 cents goes toward the income and benefits of its employees.

However, as the Columbia Journalism Review subsequently noted, Morelix's analysis only takes into account the payroll and employee benefits of McDonald's company-operated stores while excluding franchise businesses. Prior to publication, HuffPost asked Morelix if his analysis included franchises and he said it did. He later conceded it did not. McDonald's franchises make up more than 80 percent of McDonald's restaurants worldwide. This means that a majority of the payroll and employee benefits of McDonald's workers are not included in Morelix's findings.

A typical fast-food restaurant spends 30 to 35 percent of its income on labor, according to a recent release from the Employment Policies Institute, a research organization whose work is often cited by those who argue against increasing the minimum wage. The institute estimates that small-business owners who run McDonald's franchises spend about a third of their income on wages, which would mean the price of a Big Mac would go up by $1.28 to $5.27.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mcdonalds-salaries_n_3672006.html

Even if I assume the Huff Post got it right this time, that's a 32% price increase for a Big Mac if McDonald's doubled salaries. Funny that they quoted an undergraduate student (just out of high school) with an agenda, and then filed a report. Great reporting!!

Who would pay $5.27 for a Big Mac??

pineinthegrass wrote: Who would pay $5.27 for a Big Mac??

I used to eat them when they were 15 cents. Well, not the BIG mac, they only made little Macs back then.

HuffPo not verifying stories? Imagine that. I am shocked!

This is interesting, but should not matter. The more we try to make the relationship of two people about all of us with everyone having a say, the more that one relationship is doomed to failure.

Regardless, I still make the same point, you raise wages, you change over the employees. $15/hour mandated wages in fast food would only make it so we turned over from the current crew to recent college grads and the semiretired elderly. This is after you jump over just how unfair it is to make someone pay more than market rate for something...you know, like sales taxes.

on that note wrote: This is interesting, but should not matter. The more we try to make the relationship of two people about all of us with everyone having a say, the more that one relationship is doomed to failure.

Regardless, I still make the same point, you raise wages, you change over the employees. $15/hour mandated wages in fast food would only make it so we turned over from the current crew to recent college grads and the semiretired elderly. This is after you jump over just how unfair it is to make someone pay more than market rate for something...you know, like sales taxes.

I understand what you are saying and pretty much agree, but I see one issue.

The unemployment rate for people with college degrees is actually very low at 3.8%. So there aren't a lot of college grads available to hire. Granted, new grads are just getting started and probably have a bit higher unemployment rate.

So if McDs offers $15/hr, that will have to beat what grads are getting in their current jobs. Plus you have to factor in how many college grads want to flip burgers vs work in an office, even if it does pay $1/hr more.

Yeah, it's a shame that HuffPo had to revise their numbers on one article. (Of course, there's enough evidence around to show that Mickey D's could STILL pay their workers nearly double and still not raise the price of a Big Mac by more than 60-75 cents:

A Fast-Food Joint Thrives, Even by Paying $12 an Hour
At Detroit’s Moo Cluck Moo, the healthy burgers and chicken menu come with another twist: a living wage for employees. Daniel Gross reports on their ethical bottom line.

Moo Cluck Moo attracted its staff of 12 through an ad on Cragislist that elicited between 60 and 70 applicants. One of them was Jennifer Aguilar, a 30-year-old mother of four who signed on in April. “It was appealing to me because of the pay and because of the idea of the healthy eating,” says Aguilar, who works 35 to 40 hours per week. “The pay is great, but the other thing I really like is that they treat you with good respect. Nobody yells at anybody. We communicate.”

“We don’t have a corporate overhead, and our CEO isn’t making $50 million a year.”

Billionaire Charles Koch on helping the poor: Eliminate minimum wages

Charles Koch, the billionaire co-owner of Koch Industries and libertarian financier, thinks poor people would be better off if companies could pay them less than $7.25 per hour.

In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, Koch said economic freedom was key to helping those in need. That meant getting rid of regulations, including the minimum wage.

“We want to do a better job of raising up the disadvantaged and the poorest in this country, rather than saying ‘Oh, we’re just fine now.’ … Anything that people with limited capital can do to raise themselves up, they keep throwing obstacles in their way. And so we’ve got to clear those out. Or the minimum wage. Or anything that reduces the mobility of labor,” he explained to the Eagle.

Koch also cited government subsidies and “cronyism,” along with certain permits and licenses, as causes of “a culture of dependency.”

The Charles Koch Foundation launched a 60-second television spot on Wednesday in Kansas that claims economic freedom is the key to financial prosperity and social progress. The ad warns the United States’ economic freedom ranking has fallen and could continue to decline.

Isn't it nice that we have the Koch-heads worrying about how best to help the poor and low-wage workers. "It's for their own good, to keep them poor..."

Stephen Colbert's Scathing, Hilarious Response To McDonald's McMinimum Wage Budget (VIDEO)

Features O'Reilly: "There is a reason for poverty in America...."

Top Three Myths Conservatives Use To Oppose Increasing The Minimum Wage
By Pat Garofalo on July 26, 2012 at 2:00 pm

House Democrats have introduced a bill in the House — bound to go nowhere due to the Republican majority — that would increase the minimum wage to $10. This would give the wage the purchasing power that it had in the 1960s.

Republicans have publicly met the idea of raising the minimum wage with contempt, with Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) even nonsensically telling one constituent who asked about the Democrats’ bill to “get a job.” Meanwhile, thousands of working Americans this week rallied in favor a higher minimum wage.

Conservative opposition to a higher minimum wage hinges on a few tired arguments that ultimately protect big businesses and hurt low-income workers. Here are the favorite conservative myths when it comes to the minimum wage and why there’s really nothing to them:

1) The minimum wage kills jobs. “It’s a classic election-year ploy to make the Democrats look like they’re protecting low-income workers. I think it’s well understood that raising the minimum wage hurts workers on the lower end of the pay scale in that it does kill jobs,” said a recent statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. However, several academic studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not have a negative effect on employment. In fact, an analysis of state minimum wage increases showed that those state boosting their wage “had job growth slightly above the national average.”

2) Increasing the minimum wage hurts small businesses. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) reacted to a proposal to raise the minimum wage by saying that small business owners are “going to have to lay people off.” However, two-thirds of low-wage workers actually work for big corporations, most of which have largely recovered from the recession and could therefore afford to increase wages. The three largest employers of low-wage workers have all seen large profit increases in the last few years.

3) Increasing the minimum wage only benefits teenagers. Many Republicans argue that raising the minimum wage just hurts teenagers’ ability to gain work experience. But as a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows, nearly 90 percent of minimum wage workers are 20 years old or older. Plus, “more than a third (35.8 percent) [of minimum wage workers] are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents.”

Boy, the "oldies are the goodies", aren't they?... Just keep trotting out the same "cry Wolf" neocon arguments that they've been trying to use since the 1930's... (And that history has proven wrong, over and over again.)

Nobel Economists: Republicans Wrong on Minimum Wage

With the buying power of the Federal minimum wage at its lowest point in 55 years, five Nobel Prize-winning economists have been joined by 650 of their peers, in calling on the Republican-led Congress to increase the minimum wage. Describing the last increase almost 10 years ago as now "fully eroded," the economists said that they agree with a report written in 1999 by the Council of Economic Advisors declaring that "modest increases in the minimum wage have had very little or no effect on employment."

"We believe that a modest increase in the minimum wage would improve the well-being of low-wage workers and would not have the adverse effects that critics have claimed," the economists wrote in a paper delivered this week on a conference call hosted by the Economic Policy Institute, an economic research group based in Washington, D.C.

In addition to asserting that the real value of the minimum wage is at its lowest point since 1951, the economists also noted that the ratio of what a minimum-wage earner makes and the average pay rates of other hourly workers is at a significant low.

The Minimum Wage: Myths & Facts

MYTH: Increasing The Minimum Wage Irrefutably Kills Jobs

FACT: Numerous Studies Suggest Minimum Wage Increases Don't Kill Jobs, And May Even Increase Hiring


MYTH: Minimum Wage Hikes Hurt Small Businesses

FACT: Many Studies Find Minimum Wage Increases Do Not Harm Small Businesses


MYTH: We've Already Raised The Minimum Wage Enough

FACT: Minimum Wage Growth Has Lagged Inflation, Leaving Minimum Wage Earners With Far Less Purchasing Power Today Than Previous Decades


MYTH: No One Expects To Live Off The Minimum Wage, It's Just For Teenagers

FACT: Half Of Minimum Wage Earners Are 25 Or Older, Representing Millions Of Adult Workers

Yeah, it's a shame that ONE of HuffPo's articles had some bad-math in it... Unlike, FauxNews which is wrong about 70% of the time, and NEVER admits it. But Hey, the old Koch Brothers talking-points are the best, aren't they?

LadyJazzer wrote:
Yeah, it's a shame that ONE of HuffPo's articles had some bad-math in it... Unlike, FauxNews which is wrong about 70% of the time, and NEVER admits it.

I don't suppose you have a source for this claim? (other than your a$$)

LadyJazzer wrote: Yeah, it's a shame that HuffPo had to revise their numbers on one article. (Of course, there's enough evidence around to show that Mickey D's could STILL pay their workers nearly double and still not raise the price of a Big Mac by more than 60-75 cents:

Didn't you even read the new Huff Post number? From their article doubling McDonald's salary would raise the Big Mac prices by $1.28, not 60-75 cents. Where the hell does that come from? What evidence??




And just imagine what a Big Mac price would go up to if you also doubled the salary of all the minimum wage people that supply the buns, meat, napkins, etc. to McDonald's.

Many people cannot afford a Big Mac at even the current price. That's why dollar meals are so successful and competitive among fast food places.

Those that read, and believe HuffingPoop articles, clearly are huffing poop.

pineinthegrass wrote:

on that note wrote: This is interesting, but should not matter. The more we try to make the relationship of two people about all of us with everyone having a say, the more that one relationship is doomed to failure.

Regardless, I still make the same point, you raise wages, you change over the employees. $15/hour mandated wages in fast food would only make it so we turned over from the current crew to recent college grads and the semiretired elderly. This is after you jump over just how unfair it is to make someone pay more than market rate for something...you know, like sales taxes.

I understand what you are saying and pretty much agree, but I see one issue.

The unemployment rate for people with college degrees is actually very low at 3.8%. So there aren't a lot of college grads available to hire. Granted, new grads are just getting started and probably have a bit higher unemployment rate.

So if McDs offers $15/hr, that will have to beat what grads are getting in their current jobs. Plus you have to factor in how many college grads want to flip burgers vs work in an office, even if it does pay $1/hr more.

The unemployment rate of people with college degrees is one thing, I was referring to recent grads and the semiretired. Recent grads are unlikely to have an unemployment rate of 3.8% and when many do not find work, they cannot even apply for benefits or end up on any list. I am speaking as an employer in a number of college towns, even ones with very low general unemployment rates. When I post that I am looking for a clerk in one of my stores...I get flooded with recent grads looking for something to wait out the bad economy. You know, kind of like waiting to go bald, just longer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/1 ... 62712.html

According to this, recent Architect grads (12+%), Graphic designers (10%), teachers (5% and are generally govt workers who make more than the median in the US) and overall 7.9% based on 22-26 yr olds and I repeat, I expect this group is really good at not ending up on lists, so these are likely underestimates or they accounted for this.

http://www.ibtimes.com/educated-unemplo ... ds-1324431

According to this, some of the above is confirmed and it shows that folks with just a High School education have an easier time finding employment than college grads when both are in the mid 20s. This makes sense given that the High School Grad prob. spent the last 7 years getting marketable skills or they would have starved, where as the college grad lived off of someone else or their future and were encouraged to study what made them happy at school.

My sense on the ground is that this particular group is very desperate (college grads recent), underemployed, in a fair amount of debt and likely going to feel the effects of this for 20-30 years if not the rest of their lives.

Too bad mom and dad pushed for college in stead of opportunity....they thought they were the same thing, in fact some even thought that the only way to opportunity was college.

It costs close to $50-200k to get an education. Most college grads would have been better off investing in starting a small business, even a lawn mowing business, or even 2 businesses. With a good high school education and a mentor they would have been off like a prom dress in many cases or at least better off than they are now.

There is another long term effect that is going to come due. Many of the folks that graduate that need jobs will flip the burger, those that don't will go home to mom and dad, who themselves are not so great off and are going to live longer than previous gens and need more money. But they will continue to face large inflation, taxation and they have not saved well/lost what they have saved.....and now they have to continue to support all the jrs. that don't want to flip burgers. And in part they don't want jr to flip burgers because after paying for what amounts to a house for an education, they don't want to admit they failed in guiding their kids into school either.

IMMVHO