The McPay Raise Isn't Going to Help Most McDonald's Workers

It’s important not to believe McDonald’s inevitable claims that they can’t do anything about franchisees’ pay scales, as it’s instructive to remember just how detailed a hold McDonald’s has on their franchise operation and just how much money said entities make for the parent company. Don’t believe anyone making the claim that corporate stores are somehow more profitable for McDonald’s and can thus more easily absorb the hit; the opposite is actually true, clearly evidenced by the staggering number of franchises compared to corporate-owned stores. The claim that McDonald’s can’t possibly mandate how its franchisees treat their employees doesn’t hold up when you consider they could easily off-set the cost by offering to reduce a portion of the onerous financial burden the franchisee is under in exchange for their promise to offer the same protections they’re willing to offer their corporate-store workers. Such measures could take the form of loosening the requirements around the company’s Triple Net Lease or changing the franchise rent structure (remember, McDonald’s gets both a cut of the franchise’s profits AND the franchise has to pay them rent, all while the company shoulders little to none of the operating costs), or even switching to the same percentage of sales profit model that every other notable fast food franchise uses (currently, it’s a flat amount rather than a portion of profits).

Bottom line? This is a company that times how long it takes for franchise partners to get customers through the drive through and uses proprietary computer software to prevent workers from clocking in on time if labor costs are determined—by the parent company, again—to be too high. There’s no possible way they can justify their franchisees not treating workers like human beings when they’re the ones preventing them from doing so under the current system.

Image via A. Aleksandravicious/Shutterstock.