You want to give fast food workers more of a pay, right?

So does that mean you want to

raise the cost of food? Cause more unemployment? Have your favorite restaurants go

out of business? I don’t think so.

When you raise the cost of labor, you increase the cost of food, cause workers to lose

their jobs, and businesses will die.

For our first main issue, if you increase the cost of the employee, you increase the cost

of food.

James Sherk, an expert who writes for Newsela, claims “fast-food jobs are relatively

low-productivity positions, typically filled by inexperienced workers. Most fast-food

customers want a quick, inexpensive meal. They will not regularly pay premium prices

for a burger and fries” . This quote shows that other experts have researched and agree

with that raising fast food workers wages will cause negative effects .University of

California writers Renkin and Siegenthaler say “We find that a 10% minimum wage hike

translates into a 0.36% increase in the prices of grocery products.” This shows that

when the cost of labor goes up the cost of food goes up as well.

For our second main problem,Raising the cost of labor causes employees to lose jobs.

Matt Nesto, a writer from Yahoo! Finance notes, “Suddenly, every McDonald’s and

Pizza Hut and Popeye’s in the land would be inundated with applications and therefore

could be extra-picky as to who they hire, and what they expect from new as well as
current workers.” Fast food workers could end up without jobs because more people

would apply; this could result in people regularly losing employment because they would

raise their expectations and would not have to worry about finding a replacement.

Roxana Popescu, writer of The San Diego Union Tribune, also states, “Raising the

minimum wage to $20 for fast-food restaurant workers could lead to fewer job

opportunities, a loss of jobs, hours cut and reductions in benefits and compensation.

Businesses may also shift to labor substitution, with machines and automation replacing

hourly jobs.” This is a serious problem, restaurants, such as McDonalds, have already

started replacing people with automation. While at the moment these people are mostly

just cashiers, more workers could start being replaced by electronic substitutions. So it

is clear that when you raise the minimum wage, job opportunities go down.

Lastly, raising the wages of fast food workers can destroy businesses as well. As James

Sherk from Newsela notes, “if they pay workers more than they produce, they go out of

business.” This supports the fact that if the restaurant pays the workers more than the

money they make by selling their products, the products will by default become more

expensive. When things get too expensive, customers stop coming, which causes less

income. This ultimately requires the business to shut down. The employees don’t

benefit from this, they suffer.

As you can see, raising the wages of fast food workers ultimately becomes a larger

issue. Millions of unemployed fast food workers around the world suffer because of low
pay, why make these innocent individuals suffer more than they already are. Put

yourself in their shoes.

SPAR

1. Have you thought about the fact that when people stop paying for the expensive

products the restaurants sell, the restaurant is just going to go out of business?

2. The employees of the restaurant are going to get fired and replaced if more

people want their job because of their pay, is that what you truly want for them?

3. Would you pay $20 for a cheaply made hamburger?

4. If fast food workers are getting paid as much as a buyer, or a manager, who

naturally have far more responsibilities and tasks at work, why would anyone

want a more difficult position? Wouldn’t everyone choose the easy job?

5. Another issue is that “there are concerns that it might lead to the substitution of

automation for workers." This quote was originally presented by Dube, who was

interviewed by CNBC. How does this help the situation?

6. Calderia, an expert interviewed by CNBC said, “Increasing the cost of labor

would lead to higher prices for the consumer, lower foot traffic and sales for

franchise owners, and ultimately lost entry-level jobs”. How does no business

help employees to get money, especially after being fired because the company

can’t afford to pay them?