I found this graphic in my FB feed a couple days ago, and I had to call bullshit.
First of all, some facts not in evidence.
- There are presently about 989.88 Million shares of McDonald's stock outstanding.
- According to my high school math and my calculator, if you take that $20 Billion and divide it by the number of outstanding shares, that comes out to $20.20 that each share receives for the year. I am not a stock analyst, so I do not know if that is a good rate of return or not.
- The stock price for MCD when I checked a few minutes ago was $101.44, which means that you have to hold on to that stock for 5 years before you receive a return on your investment.
- Only 35% of the McDonald's out there are owned by the corporation directly. The other 65% are franchise stores. If you don't know a franchise works, I suggest you look it up.
- Franchisees stand on their own financially. Other than through stock purchase, they will never see that $20 Billion.
- A regular fast-food restaurant usually has over a 200% turnover per year. That means three people will go through a position in a year. Bob starts, and he lasts 3-4 months, whereupon he quits (or is fired) and Mary replaces him. She then moves on for whatever reason and we end the year with Larry.
- I personally don't think that a job where you can be given a couple of laminated sheets full of pictographs and 5 minutes of training from the shift supervisor before you are turned loose is worth $15 an hour.
When a Sergeant with a family and two years in service gets about $20/hour. If he's single, he only makes $13 an hour. It takes over a year to train an infantryman in the tools of his trade and to work as a team with his buddies. Then there is the grueling mental and physical training, as well as the responsibility and leadership training to rise to E-5.
And he gets shot at as part of his job description.
I don't see these two job types anywhere close to each other. Bottom line, if you want to be paid $15 (or more) an hour, go learn a skill. You don't need a college degree, a Vocational school will give you a trade that likely pays more and sooner than a 4 year degree. Plumber, electrician, mason, welder or any of a hundred other skilled trades pay a lot more than minimum wage. If you make yourself worth $15 an hour, people will pay you that.
Don't depend on the government to mandate what you should be paid. Take charge of your life and make yourself worth more, no one else will.