MovieChat Forums > Politics > Something is Screwed Up!

Something is Screwed Up!

posted 8 years ago by arvin g borkar (2854)
1 reply | jump to latest

So, I have been looking at what the minimum wage was and have compared it to now (or at least an estimate of what it should be.) Through this, I have used White Castle for my example.

Back in the day, a slider cost $0.05 and the minimum wage was $0.25/hr. This was in 1938. Today, the minimum wage should be $4.34/hr. (even as it is $7.25) and a slider is around $0.82. There is proportion that needs to be met. If we multiplied the same from $0.25 to $4.34, we should be able to get close to what a slider should be ($0.86).

So why do some fast food places feel the need to charge WAY OVER minimum wage for a meal and at the same point, hire people at minimum wage? Let's expand this. Why should ANY business not hire someone at well over minimum wage, if they sell their products for what it would take days, months, and years to afford what they pay their employees.

If the minimum wage was $4.34, it would take between 1-2 hours of working at minimum wage to afford a burger.

That's messed up!

[–] krl97a (5619) 8 years ago

There's no proportion that "needs to be met". Something is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it, whether you're talking burgers or employees. The danger now is that fast food employees are becoming expensive enough that it would be cheaper for companies to replace them with automation. Also, labor costs are only one of many variables that go into overhead and pricing decisions. Competition, societal eating habits, advertising expense, and other factors, many of which have changed over the years, matter too.