From the NYTimes.com:

by Steven Greenhouse

Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

As the movement struggles to find pressure points in its quest for substantially higher wages for workers, organizers said strikes were planned for the first time in cities like Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh.

The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry.

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

And there you have it.  “Inadequate wages.”

Let me cut right to the core of the matter, for those persons who believe that working at WalMart, slinging burgers and pushing the CHEESEBURGER icon at McDonald’s deserves $15.00 an hour:

No, it doesn’t deserve that wage.  You aren’t worth that much.

Because with that wage you’re now competing against persons who must have actual skills, such as entry level machinists, construction workers, electricians, plumbers, mechanics.  People who must not only possess a few brain cells, but people who must possess initial and basic psychomotor abilities, spatial acuity, reasoning and problem solving expertise.

Jobs at registers for McDonald’s or Wendy’s or WalMart are called “entry level” for a reason.  These positions are for people entering the job force, primarily at a young age, and are meant to teach the entry-level worker about time management, regularity, dependability, consistency, working collaboratively in a team environment and other requisite fundamental skills.

These jobs were never meant to support a family and/or to be a final resting point of employment for anyone, unless one wished to stay at that company and then climb the individual corporate ladder, using those entry-level job skills as stepping stones towards upward mobility, supervision and then management, perhaps upper management or franchise ownership.

From worker to lead worker to shift manager to assistant store manager to store manager to regional manager and so on.

Further, fast food restaurants, a WalMart, or even grocery stores, have small profit margins.  Selling a burger at McDonald’s for $1.00 won’t make anyone “rich” in and of itself.  There is only one way that these stores can make a profit at all.  One word: volume.

A very important paragraph in the article:

Officials with the National Restaurant Association have said the one-day strikes are publicity stunts. They warn that increasing pay to $15 an hour when the federal minimum wage is $7.25 would cause restaurants to rely more on automation and hire fewer workers.

Let’s be frank: the positions at McDonald’s are entry-level jobs and require few true skills.  You, working at McDonald’s, aren’t worth that much money.  These people demanding more money have primarily inflated senses of themselves.  Again I say: you aren’t worth that much.  You are a dime a dozen and, thusly, turnover is huge in fast food restaurants.

[An aside: when was the last time you received massively cheerful, efficient, rapid, courteous service and accurate fulfillment at a fast-food restaurant?]

When people complain that many of these jobs are part-time, allow me to pull a page from the book of Captain Obvious: these jobs have historically been part-time jobs and are primarily part-time jobs now.  That they exist part-time now is not news nor oppressive.

I worked in retail at a younger age.  I was paid minimum wage.  I also worked on commission in the camera and luggage department.  If I hustled and sold more, I made more money.  I was incentivized.  If I was lazy, I languished.  I was paid what I was worth.

How about another page ripped from the play-book of Captain Obvious?

If you don’t care for your job, or if you believe you are under-paid, then go get a different job.  Go get another job.

In college, I worked at a radio station in the morning.  I was up at 5 am.  I attended classes during the day.  I worked a retail job alternate afternoons and evenings.  I also worked at that same radio station in the afternoon, Monday through Friday.  I worked at another radio station some evenings and another station on weekends.  My work/classes day ended at either 10 pm or 11 pm.  I was then up at 5 am the next day.  I was simultaneously putting myself through a non-paying law enforcement academy on specific nights and on the weekend.  I worked an additional retail job during the holidays.  That is how I put myself through college.  And how I acquired my jobs in law enforcement.

This movement is nothing more than union-building by SEIU and others.  It is representative of a nation of over-esteemed individuals whose worth in their minds is not congruent with reality.

Many people say: you should be glad people want to work.  They could be staying home and making money not working.

To that I reply: yes they could.  And I advocate closing off that tap as well, as a form of incentivization towards employment.

Keep on this tack, low-skilled workers, and you’ll find yourselves replaced with a piece of machinery.

BZ