McMonarchy reigns supreme

I like to think of a 10-piece chicken nugget meal as a best friend.

It’s the kind of friendship where a week or two without seeing one another feels like an eternity.

These are the kinds of friends you stick with in good times and in bad, and right now fast food is not doing so hot.

Fast food employees are struggling to live on their current wages, and they are striking. Many industry workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

In 1980, the minimum wage was $3.10, which has the buying power of $8.79 today.

Needless to say, these employees aren’t — ba da ba ba ba — loving it. Their campaign is called “Fight for $15,” what they believe is a fair, living wage.

They are also seeking rights to unionize without retaliation from employers.

Working at a fast food franchise is no longer just a job for teens. With the nation’s unstable economy of the last decade, many took jobs they were overqualified for after being laid-off.

Now about 25 percent of workers are raising a child, and 40 percent are more than 25 years old.

It’s going to take a little more than a Happy Meal toy to turn these frowns upside down.

Although franchise owners’ hands are usually tied when it comes to drastic budget changes, corporate bodies should look for opportunities to super-size wages.

In its 2012 Annual Report, McDonald’s reported an increase in operating income just shy of $5 billion since 2007.

Such a massive increase in profit suggests McDonald’s employees must be doing something right, so it only makes sense that Ronald McCorporate should at least listen to workers’ needs.

Unfortunately, corporate clowns at the golden arches and other fast food chains have little motivation to address such complaints.

Because there are so many people looking for any kind of work there is, a constant flow of applicants are ready to don an apron, visor and headset.

There is also no pressure from consumers to raise the wages of these workers.

Fifteen dollars is more than double the current minimum wage, and there is no benefit to employers if workers unionize.

There needs to be a compromise.

Workers must understand no matter how much they need their jobs, the companies they work for have lines of others willing to work for less.

Corporations should also make the transition from burger kings to burger representatives or burger prime ministers. The McMonarchy representing the disparity between corporate salaries and hourly wages should step off the throne and look at what can be done to give employees a real living wage.

The people who prepare my chicken nuggets deserve to be as happy as said nuggets make me.

Fast food, you’ve got a friend in me.

­— wroyal@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Will Royal on Twitter @RealGoodWill.