Fast food industry readying for next month's minimum wage hike

From Fast Food Nation:

"The annual turnover rate in the fast food industry is now about 300 to 400 percent. The typical fast food worker quits or is fired every three to four months."

This means huge inefficiencies, since there are so many hours devoted to training new employees. Solution? Pay your workers more--maybe they'd stay if the jobs you offer weren't utterly disposable. How could you possibly afford it?

"Increasing the federal minimum wage by a dollar would add about two cents to the cost of a fast food hamburger." (emphasis mine)

In-n-Out, looney or not, start workers at $10 per hour. They seem to be doing just fine, in part because they can pick and choose the best and brightest of the "unskilled" labor market.

This wage thing goes beyond fast-food. Many retail stores only pay minimum wage. This little 70 cent an hour raise will mean an extra $112 a month (before taxes) for a lot of people who've barely made ends meet. It's a damn shame that the raise will just translate into higher costs for everything effectively neutralizing the raise and keeping the little guy down.

Dude, I used to work for a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour when I worked in a fast food place in CA when I was 17. People need to quit their bitchin' about making more than $7!!!

But really, I get it...inflation and all. Still. I'd have been happy to have made anything above $6 when I was in high school.

I don't thoroughly understand the reference to "higher efficiency soda fountains" but I already gave up drive-thru sodas when they started charging ridiculously high amounts for what was basically the equivalent of about $.30 of cost to the store I was buying from, so I guess it doesn't really matter overall. (I am willing to pay $1.50 for a large - or 32 oz - drink. Anything more than that is highway robbery, IMO, and I won't do it!)

Sonic...wow. I admit my logic may be twisted, but outside of a bar setting I tend to follow the rule: refills = tips. If my relationship with the person delivering my food is over after the money changes hands, then I keep the tip to myself. I never really considered tipping the carhops at Sonic. Does that make me a horrible person? Or does it merely highlight the industry assumption that schmucks like myself will pay the wages of their employees?

Wait a minute -- I'm supposed to be tipping the carhops at Sonic? That's like tipping the guy who makes your sandwich at Subway (and yes I've seen tip cups in some Subways).

Even if you're paid a "tip wage" you still have to be compensated at the minimum wage rate. The idea is that your tips will make up the difference between the "tip wage" and the minimum. If you don't get enough tips to make up the difference, your employer has to pay it.

And yeah, Chad - you gotta love the food industry bosses, who've not only managed to convince Joe Public that Joe should be paying the bosses' employees, but have even convinced their employees that Joe is a cheap bastard if he doesn't cough up a nice fat tip. Right - it's JOE'S fault you're making $2.65 an hour, not the son-of-a-bitch who signs your paycheck.

The etiquette, yes, is to tip at Sonic- most people I know just let them keep the coin change. I guess since the carhop brings you your food, much like a waitress, that tipping is appropriate. I however, don't. It's not my fault that they decided as a chain on a retro concept.

I was going to post a comment yesterday about identical to Chad's re: Sonic.

I now feel like a d-bag for not tipping the car hops.. sort of. Almost none of the Sonic's in my area have drive thru's, and when I go to Sonic it is almost always just for a soda. There is no way I am tipping someone for a soda when they are the ones not letting me just drive through and get it!