Raising minimum wage has a ripple effect

This is in response to Ron Flowers on his Dec. 9 comments about raising minimum wages. He stated the McDonald’s CEO has a multimillion-dollar salary, and therefore McDonald’s should pay above minimum wage. McDonald’s restaurant people do not work for the McDonald’s Corp. They work for the franchisees (a small business).

Now if you raise the minimum wage $1 per hour, then what do you do with the employees making $10 per hour? You have to give them a raise. Then what do you do with the supervisor who makes $12 per hour? You have to give him or her a raise. What do you do with a manager who makes $20 per hour? Give him or her a raise.

So a $1 per hour raise for minimum wage employees could cost the owner of the local McDonald’s $2,000 extra per week minimum if he has 50 employees. That’s $104,000 extra minimum per year.

Now that $1 per hour is not a $1 per hour. On top of the $1, you have to add workman’s comp insurance, unemployment insurance, FICA, benefits, holiday pay and vacations. With the slim profit margins in the fast-food business, raising minimum wage will either make them go broke or raise prices. If they raise prices they will do less business and then they will have to lay people off. Is that what Mr. Flowers wants?

Gerald Aleksy

Elk Grove Village