It'd almost be funny if it wasn't on the backs of millions of low-wage workers. As a New York Times article on other companies that pay more than they have to notes:
At the McDonald's shareholders meeting in May, Don Thompson, its chief executive, defended the company's compensation policies, saying many managers there started as hourly workers.
"We continue to believe that we pay fair and competitive wages," Mr. Thompson said. "We provide job opportunities and training for those entering the work force."
"We are trying to be a really great employer" he added.
Along with being filthy (rich), these people are delusional. Indistinguishable from those who employed 10-year olds back 100 years ago and swore on heaven and earth that the economy would fail if they couldn't do that any more.
The American people subsidize these so called "job opportunities" these companies generously provide (and are surely losing money by doing so...). All so that Mr. Thompson and his friends can make (not earn!) more than anyone could possibly conceptualize spending...
McDonald's... gave Thompson a package worth $13.8 million, up from the $4.1 million he received in 2011, according to a regulatory filing Friday.
What would happen if a little of that money was spent providing workers with a living wage? Here's what happens, quoting the founder of a small fast food chain, Moo Cluck Moo, that pays all its workers at least $15/hr:
"We don't have any turnover. We don't have to train people constantly." His restaurants serve upscale hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and salads, and a full meal generally costs around $1.25 more than at McDonald's.
And from the other side, here's what happens to employees who begin making a living wage:
Rachel Troutman, 34, said she was thrilled to be earning $15 an hour, $600 a week, with Moo Cluck Moo. She used to earn $10 an hour as a top manager at a sit-down family restaurant.
Thanks to her higher pay, Ms. Troutman, a mother of four, has replaced her 1996 Oldsmobile 88 with a more reliable 2005 Ford Taurus and has gone from renting an 850-square-foot home to buying a 1,900-square-foot house.
"I no longer need food stamps," she said, "although the government still helps me out with child care. I don't know how families are making it on the minimum wage. It would take two full-time minimum wage jobs to make what I make."
Horrible, isn't it?
Imagine Ms. Troutman's newly earned money re-circulating multiple times through the economy. Now compare that with Mr. Thompson's bazillions sitting in an offshore account.
It's time every person has the chance to earn a living wage. It's past time to establish a real living wage in the United States, and then index it to inflation. But that's never going to happen by waiting for politicians whose campaign coffers are stocked by the one percent.
It's only going to happen, except in a select few places like San Francisco and Seattle, when people decide they simply aren't going to take it any more, leaving McDonald's corporate executives and franchise owners to grill their own burgers. Which would probably be inedible.
Inedible burgers. Nothing would spark a wage revolution in the US faster than that.