To the Editor,
Darn near everyone who actually works for a living is not paid what they are worth for what they do. How can I say that? Let’s take a look: a Big Mac is $4.49. Let’s say Mickey’s sells 200 in an hour. They just made $898. Let’s say we’ve got four people working: one front counter, one in the back, one drive-thru, and one manager floating between all three.
These four made $898 for the company, but they didn’t get paid $224.50, did they? According to the best info I could find, a Big Mac runs between $.77 and .65 to make, but let’s be super generous and say it takes one flat dollar to make. That’s a profit margin of $698. Now let’s take out money for bills, taxes, operation expenses, and so on… but do you really think, after that, that they are left with just $41.75 to pay the workers?
(I’m being a little generous here, assuming the three workers are making $7.25 and the manager is making $20)
Do you really think all the costs to operate a business cost $656.75 of the $898 they made? Is the McDonald’s really spending 72% of the profit on operating costs?
Of course they’re not: that money is going to bloated corporate salaries, nonsensical marketing strategies, endorsement, and investor cash-outs. Do we really want to create that sort of world? Because to me, that sounds an awful lot like Lords and Peasants.
Eric Leitzen
Hokah, Minn.