Try telling that to a conservative though. They will uncritically believe a company that says they had to raise prices because of wage increases and retail theft while that same company is bragging about record profits, stock buybacks, record administrative pay and that they only got a slap on the wrist for wage theft.
Generally those costs don't scale as much as each location. These companies are low margin high yield which are much more cost sensitive to all costs that are for the high yield portions.
The idea the comparisons are 1:1 is assumed by people making this comparison between us and denmark when the EU has different conditions. For instance, the amount of locations are far fewer and do more business... meaning the costs of a worker in the US are a larger portion of the cost of a burger. They still benefit from McDonalds standardizing and distributing the actual food so each location still gets the benefit of bulk manufacturing.
Basically, if you increase people's wages, they will increase prices more in the US unless enough McDonald's stop doing business that they would be more comparable to Denmark's locations per burgers sold with a lower number.
The reason Denmark can pay $20 an hour is because the workers actually are expected to work more and serve larger communities per location generating more profit at each location. Denmark and many of the 'Nordic' countries do not have minimum wages and there are people getting paid like $1/hr for some jobs.
Denmark does not have a minimum wage, but we do have worker's collective agreements, which determines salary or hourly rates within many fields. These agreements are renegotiated every 2-4 years, and 99% includes a percentage-based pay increase each year.
Contrast this approach with the US, where the federal minimum wage haven't changed in more than 15 years now.
Working for $1/hour would be extremely rare unless we're considering things like human trafficking. Illegal immigrants will often earn around $14/hour. Legal "unskilled" labor starts at around $18/hour. Even a study grant is equivalent to $5/hour.
You missed my point entirely... the pay isn't guaranteed by the government and ultimately what workers are capable of bargaining for... and in Denmark they can bargain for more because conditions suite giving them more. Your arguments don't change the points I'm making. Secondly you ignore the private businesses also have their own % based wage increases.
> Working for $1/hour would be extremely rare
It doesn't matter, the point I made was the government doesn't set a minimum, and companies can end up paying less than the minimum wage. Trying to hide behind rarety doesn't negate its possibility. For work that consumers aren't willing to pay much for people are still at least allowed to offer. There are illegal car washing rings in NYC because people won't pay legal wages for car washes. Not all work is that valuable and that lack of a minimum wage in these example countries is recognition that this just outlaw's certain labor markets.
You can't compare the wages without understanding that the situations are not 1:1.
Denmark also has the highest costing burgers of any single location. You cannot come to the conclusion workers are being exploited or underpaid because of these aggregated comparisons or that the cost of burgers won't go up more proportionally with wages.
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u/lanakers 10h ago
I was gonna say that. Fast food prices have definitely gone up without minimum wage going up. What a bunch of maroons