Fast Food Workers Strike Demands $15 Federal Minimum Wage, But Is That A Good Idea?

A fast food workers strike is demanding $15 an hour for employees at McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Wendy’s and other major chains.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the fast food workers strike is affecting seven cities.

The United States economy is struggling to recover. Even though the US unemployment rate dropped to 7.6 percent many of the new jobs include those who are underemployed or the 8.3 million part-time workers with low pay. Things are so bad that the McDonald’s employee budget tips forgot to include clothes and food as part of a potential budget for fast food workers. They also recommended a second job and budgeting only $20 for health care insurance, which isn’t reasonable even if with the Obamacare subsidies provided in the state exchanges.

Earlier this year, another fast food workers strike tied Martin Luther King Jr. to their efforts to get $15 an hour. But this demand seems unreasonable so it’s possible they’re hoping to negotiate a middle ground.

So what would be a good figure for the fast food workers strike to demand on a national level? An analysis by economist John Schmitt claims that if the Federal minimum wage were to be indexed to the official Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), then the Federal minimum wage should be $10.52 an hour. If you use the current methodology (CPI-U-RS) for calculating inflation, then the Federal minimum wage should be $9.22.

But that study is based upon the entire nation and does not take into account the particular situation of those involved in the fast food workers strike. If you take into account the higher than usual cost of living in these large cities, then the fast food workers strike should be demanding around $11 to $12 an hour. A $15 Federal minimum wage is just way too large a jump and could destabilize the US economy.

Considering these wage problems tend to be highly localized, it seems best to change the state minimum wage instead of the Federal minimum wage. A striking example is New York City, where the cost of living is extremely different from the rest of New York state residents, but New York’s minimum wage is $7.25. In that case, a city minimum wage might be more appropriate demand for the fast food workers strike.

Do you think the fast food workers in the McDonald’s strike are demanding too much money?