McDonald's CEO Says Fast-Food Jobs Can Lead To 'Real Careers'
65 replies, posted
[URL="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/05/22/314955095/mcdonalds-ceo-says-fast-food-jobs-can-lead-to-real-careers"]NPR Link[/URL]
[quote=NPR]As hundreds of protesters loudly demanded higher wages outside McDonald's headquarters in suburban Chicago, the company's CEO told an audience inside that the fast-food giant has a heritage of providing opportunities that lead to "real careers."
"We believe we pay fair and competitive wages," Donald Thompson said at the company's annual meeting on Thursday.
The annual meeting was held a day after more than 1,000 protesters, including many wearing McDonald's uniforms, "stormed through the company's campus entrance" in Oak Brook, Bloomberg writes. The Associated Press says 138 of them were arrested for refusing to leave the company's property.
The protests are part of a larger movement that got underway in 2012 with demonstrations in New York City demanding $15 an hour for fast-food workers.[/quote]
It's true! My mum's first job after university was working in a McDonalds, now she owns several companies and rents out shitloads of houses.
(She's also really good at cracking eggs open)
[quote]"We believe we pay fair and competitive wages,"[/quote]
thats a good one
It makes sense, if I was an employer I'd want to see that they'd crawled through ten miles of shit so they'd appreciate the job more.
It can lead to real careers in the sense that earning money and making connections with other people, regardless of how you do it, can lead to real careers.
This isn't an argument against increasing the minimum wage though.
[QUOTE=SexualShark;44889353]thats a good one[/QUOTE]
Any company that says they pay "competitive wages" is generally like 25th percentile in terms of pay.
It helps as much as any other job: being able to say you have work experience. That's about it.
So the absolute minimum you're legally allowed to pay people is "fair and competitive"
Even managers at my old store barely made more than $12/hr.
Leann Chin, which is like the mcdonalds of asian food where I live, STARTS at 12.50 for all employees
I heard you can get raises up to $2 above minimum only after 7 years!
[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;44889657]So the absolute minimum you're legally allowed to pay people is "fair and competitive"
Even managers at my old store barely made more than $12/hr.
Leann Chin, which is like the mcdonalds of asian food where I live, STARTS at 12.50 for all employees[/QUOTE]
My friend worked in a McD's in DC for a while and got promoted to manager. They didn't give him a raise from bare minimum wage despite having a ton of actual responsibility so he quit.
I mean what the fuck.
I'd rather work at Mcdonalds than Walmart, lesser of two evils I suppose.
Kroger has a top pay system that you start out min wage and every year you work, you get a raise. right now its about a nickle a year for my district for part time workers. full time is like 50 cents, while managers get a dollarish raise a year.
Main problem with this is if you get a promotion they use it as an excuse to restart your top pay. So say if you take a full time position at a different area of the store, your original maybe $7.80 pay gets knocked back down to $7.25. It didnt used to be like this, but they have gotten so fucking greedy with cutting people and hours while forcing more and more work on the leftover workers.
I wonder how many burgers did the CEO have to flip to get into the position
[QUOTE]"We believe we pay fair and competitive wages,"[/QUOTE]
Compared to say, Taco Bell. Or Indian garment factory workers.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;44890540]I wonder how many burgers did the CEO have to flip to get into the position[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.workingmums.co.uk/working-mums-magazine/all/1173416/drue-hammond-rising-up-the-ranks-at-mcdonalds.thtml[/url]
some of a few
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;44890540]I wonder how many burgers did the CEO have to flip to get into the position[/QUOTE]
I would guess a lot, beings he started out as a burger flipper....
[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;44889657]So the absolute minimum you're legally allowed to pay people is "fair and competitive"
Even managers at my old store barely made more than $12/hr.
Leann Chin, which is like the mcdonalds of asian food where I live, STARTS at 12.50 for all employees[/QUOTE]
The managers here in rockford start at $9.25...
[QUOTE=zin908;44890112]I'd rather work at Mcdonalds than Walmart, lesser of two evils I suppose.[/QUOTE]
i worked at a walmart for 7 months, they gave me a raise when they took me on permenantly and i got certified to drive a forklift and a scissor lift there, and now i make ~$15 an hour as a forklift driver where i work now and bought a house because i was able to put "forklift experience" on my resume because of walmart
Working at McDonalds in the UK isn't bad. The pay is a lot more fair than it is in the US from what I've heard from US fast food workers.
Also it does actually act as a good starting point. Like over here work experience is absolutely everything and being able to list off McDonalds as a place of employment really does help.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;44891204]I would guess a lot, beings he started out as a burger flipper....[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/leadership/don_thompson.html"]You mean he started out as an electrical engineer in 1990 with a Bachelor's degree and experience making parts for fighter jets, right?[/URL]
[URL="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Thompson_(executive)"]He didn't flip burgers when he got hired either, he made robotic equipment for food transportation.[/URL]
Stop saying untrue things, it ruffles muh jimmies.
I make $13 ( a lot in my area as an 18 year old) an hour which is $5 more than minimum wage and I have two hours overtime everyday all week Monday through Friday sometimes Saturday and I can barely afford to live on my own if I chose to, how do they expect minimum wage to be livable?
My great-aunt worked at McDonalds for ~30 years, so yeah, if you call that a "real career."
[QUOTE=SexualShark;44889353]thats a good one[/QUOTE]
Their wages are pretty good in Australia.
He's sort of right, working there was probably one of my worst experiences and it really motivated me to study hard so that I'll never work at such an awful place again. There is no better motivator.
"Fair pay and competitive wages". The kind of cognitive dissonance that allows the CEO of McDonalds to say something like that in public is staggering.
Working at any job that makes you talk to people can lead to a more successful career.
But the job itself is still a deadend job. Burger flipping isn't a career advancing job.
[QUOTE=usaokay;44889312]My friend used to work for McDonalds, and now he's selling marijuana for a living. He's moving up in the world.
[b]Edit:[/b] I'm actually serious. He sells weed. I would never do any recreational drugs, but we're still cool.[/QUOTE]
Selling drugs can be a great source of income, and pretty secure as long as you only sell to people you know.
Problem with raising min wage for these types of entry level jobs is simple. At what point is it cheaper to automate the process to eliminate the job.
If the wage approaches that "tipping point"- now there's no job at all...
Entry level jobs (jobs that anyone can do with a few hours of training) are never going to pay well (unless you happen to live in an area with a fairly hefty labor shortage)
That said fast food jobs CAN lead to real careers. That should be your goal at any rate. Why would someone stay a burger flipper for ten plus years? Why would anyone want that?
My bud worked for mcdonalds and they fired him the second he became a "trained employee"
A lot of my mates work at Maccas to get some money in the bank, they attend high school so it's always good just having something there
Also its good for the resume, heard that employers find McDonalds a good help to develop customer service skills
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