McDonalds workers due to strike for £10 an hour...

I think an increase in Mcdonalds pricing is a small price to pay to ensure the people making your food is earning a fair amount.

You personally may well think that. Undoubtedly there are others that also think that. But McDonalds is a huge corporation with, I'm sure, a very large and experienced market research team who have thought very carefully about where to price the food. It will be at the point where there is the maximum cost they can get away with, without driving away so many customers that they begin to lose money. Companies as large and as long-term as McDonalds are usually VERY good at identifying that point. And the logical inference of the price being set at this point is that whilst you might be happy to pay more, McDonalds have calculated that more people aren't. Otherwise the price would already be higher just for the sake of profits.
 
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the demand for mc donalds is driven mainly by kids and mainly morons tbh. i don't think you will see many people earning £50K+ eating in mc donalds regularly unless they have kids.

it's not cheap because it's crap food, IMO overpriced for what you get. it will kill you (go watch super size me) and it doesn't even taste nice. once you have eaten a proper burger their tasteless thin junk doesn't compare. i'd rather spend the same money but buy myself some decent minted lamb burgers and make them at home.


However....

The bacon roll meal and coffee is really good.
 
You personally may well think that. Undoubtedly there are others that also think that. But McDonalds is a huge corporation with, I'm sure, a very large and experienced market research team who have thought very carefully about where to price the food. It will be at the point where there is the maximum cost they can get away with, without driving away so many customers that they begin to lose money. Companies as large and as long-term as McDonalds are usually VERY good at identifying that point. And the logical inference of the price being set at this point is that whilst you might be happy to pay more, McDonalds have calculated that more people aren't. Otherwise the price would already be higher just for the sake of profits.


Mcdonalds will go "gourmet" with table service and cutlery, along side the screens and collections.

One problem i see though is if mcdonalds has to pay its workers more but their competition doesn't, could this lead to BK etc slightly lowering prices just so that mcdonalds cant raise thier/has to take more of a loss to keep customers.
 
I agree on housing.

The only way to solve the housing costs is to go on a mass council house building program which no government is willing to do, it would upset all the baby boomers who own 2+ homes as it would trash the buy to let market and trigger a house price crash. In reality a crash is needed in house prices to correct the situation but too many people invested in the property market wont let it happen.

If housing was much more affordable "and" more secure, than I expect people could get by on £7 an hour much easier.

I think you oversimplfy the problem. It not just as simple as building hundreds of thousands of homes in the places people actually want to live in. There is simply not the space and infrastructure to build the required housing in the south east of England where the bulk of the demand is. Ignoring the infrastructure issues you option are prohibitively expensive compulsory purchases and re development into higher density housing or build over parks and greenfield open spaces a lot of which are on floodplains in an area that suffers increasing water stress a certain times of the year ...

A more sensible policy would be to accept that a steady reduction in the population of the country would be desirable overall at this point (although would cause problems with the current ponzi scheme of increasing gdp by population increases)

You also ignore the reality that a housing crash would not suddenly make housing super affordable to the younger generation as the costs of borrowing would also have to rise by a lot and any crash would likely be coupled by job losses. Additionally there's not enough people in the trades to massively ramp up house building... And if the answer to that conundrum is to train and or import more trades people what are they to do when the housing problem is 'fixed' by a mass building spree and their skills are no longer in such demand? Or is the answer to be a program of continual growth and population expansion till something else gives way?

I summary I don't believe that there are any 'quick fixes' to the housing issues the country faces.
 
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Regardless if you like or dislike fast food - it should be based on the skill level required and burger flipping is not a skilled position which explains the level of pay (because practically anyone can do it).

I may be taking this the wrong way, and others have said the same as this. But I don't understand why you guys are basing just on skill level required (or seem to at least)?? What about just hard graft? By your logic I would argue then that Mcdonalds workers should get paid more than a Binman or a Cash till workers or Clothing shop staff. It is an extremely demanding environment and while it's obviously not the most taxing on the brain, you have a lot to think about in very short time and does actually take a little skill to manage that correctly without sending out even more disgusting food :D. Obviously I am not comparing against any job that takes a higher intelligence and/or talent but it terms of 'low skilled' work, I am pretty sure they work a lot harder than most and not everyone can keep up the required speeds and standards (yes lol) needed in that place. Yes, it does have a no skills entry but people still do not stay if they can't handle it, which is why they have such a high turnover if that makes sense??
 
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Also working with the general public is worth a premium in itself. I've worked with the public for 15 years and it definitely charges your outlook on people.
 
Also working with the general public is worth a premium in itself. I've worked with the public for 15 years and it definitely charges your outlook on people.

I have, luckily, never had to deal with the public directly. But I used to investigate claims for a delivery company and some where insane. Like the guy that complained that his parcel was held pending additional payment. Paid for a A4 jiffy bag, slapped the label on a door for a 7.5t wagon, didn't see the problem.
 
They could strike for £10 an hour, or they could show they are a reliable intelligent worker, gain more skills and experience, and then their labour market value will be £10 an hour or even more, at which point they can apply for a better job, either internally or externally. By doing this as a country we will also incentivise people to better them self, and in doing that we will grow the economy and continue to be a rich prosperous society with a high economic output.

Alternatively, why would anyone who earns £10 an hour who has worked their way up into a role that demands more skills and responsibility continue to do that role if they can simply go do any unskilled job for the same money, and possibly have an easier/less stressful time?
 
Ok unskilled job

MC d's
Food prep and handling.
Money and card handling.
Customer interaction.

1st line tech support
Answering a phone
Googling a fix to something
Rebooting PC or printer.
Changing a password.

Isn't everything unskilled unless it makes a huge profit for somone?

Has anyone decided what a skilled job is yet?

Are skills even relevant? Isn't it just about profitability of the individual? That directly translates to there wage.
 
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I'd say skilled is something that takes longer than 2 minutes to learn, I'd agree 1st line support or any 1st line call centre type role doesn't really fit the skilled category, it's reading from a script mostly and the issues you have to deal with yourself are incredibly simple, it's more down to how good you are at handling annoyed, frustrated or angry individuals and having patience to deal with people who take half an hour to change a password with step by step instructions.

Skills are entirely relevant as the profitability depends on what tasks the individual is capable of carrying out and carrying out well at that, a 2nd line support role is around £10-11 an hour I believe for most places as a starting salary and that requires some level of knowledge and critical thinking, as others have eluded to in the thread your salary tends to reflect a ratio of how many people can excel at any given role.
 
The 1st line tech support roles generlly require a person to have a degree/exp/certs etc. Is the requirement the same for McD's?
 
The 1st line tech support roles generlly require a person to have a degree/exp/certs etc. Is the requirement the same for McD's?

is it needed? Really? A 16 year old school leaver with IT knowledge can do it too.
 
The 1st line tech support roles generlly require a person to have a degree/exp/certs etc. Is the requirement the same for McD's?

That's funny because there's an 18 year old lad sat behind me doing password resets and setting up user accounts with no degree who had about 2 days of training
 
I'd say skilled is something that takes longer than 2 minutes to learn, I'd agree 1st line support or any 1st line call centre type role doesn't really fit the skilled category, it's reading from a script mostly and the issues you have to deal with yourself are incredibly simple, it's more down to how good you are at handling annoyed, frustrated or angry individuals and having patience to deal with people who take half an hour to change a password with step by step instructions.

Skills are entirely relevant as the profitability depends on what tasks the individual is capable of carrying out and carrying out well at that, a 2nd line support role is around £10-11 an hour I believe for most places as a starting salary and that requires some level of knowledge and critical thinking, as others have eluded to in the thread your salary tends to reflect a ratio of how many people can excel at any given role.

Good call center agents can command decent salaries, it definitely is a skill that can be developed. A few of our agents are on £21k/pa, other places pay more.
 
Isn't everything unskilled unless it makes a huge profit for somone?

Has anyone decided what a skilled job is yet?

Are skills even relevant? Isn't it just about profitability of the individual? That directly translates to there wage.

No it isn't just about profitability, plenty of employees don't actively make any profit/bring in revenue but are instead seen as a cost, companies don't want to overpay for people but will often have to pay a certain amount to hire someone for a particular role based on the demand and availability of people with that skillset.

For a fast food role there generally aren't really any specific qualifications needed when hiring people, they just need someone capable of working on their feet all day performing basic tasks - there is therefore a large pool of potential applicants.

For an IT role I guess it depends on what the role involves but frequently you'll need to recruit from the pool of people who at least have some basic knowledge of IT and often require perhaps at least some entry level certificate - this narrows down the pool of potential applicants a bit but in some roles could be quite low paid/basic too.


is it needed? Really? A 16 year old school leaver with IT knowledge can do it too.

Depends on the role "1st line" just implies that that person is the among those initially dealing with calls/tickets, it doesn't necessarily mean that what they do with regards to those calls/tickets is inherently basic.
 
is it needed? Really? A 16 year old school leaver with IT knowledge can do it too.

That's funny because there's an 18 year old lad sat behind me doing password resets and setting up user accounts with no degree who had about 2 days of training

No I dont think so but this was my experience finishing my HNC a few years ago that near all entry level I.T related roles had those requirements and I was left with the decision to continue my current employment that was just over min wage or go back to uni for a degree and get 30k+ worth of debt and possibly be no better off. I pretty much gave up looking for anything I.T related and still work my current job.
 
No I dont think so but this was my experience finishing my HNC a few years ago that near all entry level I.T related roles had those requirements and I was left with the decision to continue my current employment that was just over min wage or go back to uni for a degree and get 30k+ worth of debt and possibly be no better off. I pretty much gave up looking for anything I.T related and still work my current job.

You probably just want to look at smaller companies and get an entry level position that allows you to move up or get the experience to apply for jobs else where
 
You probably just want to look at smaller companies and get an entry level position that allows you to move up or get the experience to apply for jobs else where

Agreed. My first 'construction' job was as a chain lad (engineers assistant, dogsbody). I am now a senior design engineer (still without a degree) and a member of the institute of civil engineers
 
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