The Economics of the Fast Food Industry

To explain the how the fast food industry affects the lives of it’s employees, I have prepared a set of questions to ask employees who have a fundamental experience of working in the fast food industry (appendix[i]). I also have a similar set of questions to ask people who have never worked in the fast food industry (appendix[ii]).

Within the United States, 12.7% of households had been food insecure at some point within 2015, meaning that not enough money was had to spend on food. ("United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service", par. 3) With this in mind, one of the largest problems when it comes to nutrition in the developed countries of the world is the availability of nutritious food to the lower classes because lower quality processed food is easier to obtain than nutritious food. This only seems to be a trend within developed countries so this argument will only focus on the developed countries such as the United States and France. Underdeveloped countries are left outside of these studies as they do not have widespread statistical values for any of their nutrition at any of the levels of

Andrew Carnegie once said “Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.” Carnegie: for better or worse, played an important part in the worker’s rights movement. Some of the very first movements for workers to unionize and protect their jobs came during Carnegie’s time and would mark the very beginning of long and difficult process to achieve worker’s rights that still continue to this day. The minimum wage debate is without a doubt part of these negotiations and has taken the spotlight in recent years. There are two sides to the minimum wage debate: the employees fighting for higher wages who would like to earn enough to keep food on the table for their family, and the employer who is doing what they can to keep

The employment practices of the fast food chains also leave a lot to be desired. They are a great part of the reason that people need more than one job to survive. Because they have so many minimum wage jobs – even managers only make about $10 to $15 an hour. That had become a norm in the US, where people don 't even make a livable wage.

The majority of Americans enjoy fast food like bees enjoy their honey. Fast food is hard not to love due to families experiencing fast paced days, parents who work more than 20 hours a week, and having children with picky appetites can be rough. For most American families, it can be a challenge to not consider eating fast food more than once a week. The fast food industry has grown tremendously through the years. The one restaurant that is known all over the world for their golden arches and their big macs is McDonalds. With knowledge and personal experiences, I can say that McDonalds is by far the worst fast food restaurant in America. I believe this due to how unhealthy the food is for our bodies, the disturbing facts about the happy meals, the poor service, and the non-cleanliness of the restaurant.

In Salz’s article he compares the pay of Danish workers to American workers. This is two different contexts which must be taken into account. One cannot merely compare the dollar amount of pay when the cost of living, workers skill level, and taxes must be taken into consideration. The cost of living is much higher in Europe, for example, than in America. Also, the Danish workers are unionized compared to non-unionized, fast-food workers in America, which begs the question of what are union costs and what is involved with being in a union. In Salz’s article, he assumes

From reading all five articles, the one I would have to agree with the most would be, “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home,” by Daniel Weintraub. Weintraub stated that if we are looking for someone to blame about our child obesity rate increasing in extreme amounts and our exercising rate decreasing, we should blame the guardians of the kids. To be more specific, if you have obese children, stop blaming them about their problem. Start to blame yourself. You are the cause to their problem by not teaching them that eating healthy is super important.

“Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else” (Schlosser 94).In Eric Schlosser’s Non-fiction book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser reasons that fast food has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, started an obesity epidemic and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. While the idea of a franchiser/ franchisee relationship appears to be nothing but beneficial, it has a serious drawback, which is the release/ acceptance of certain issues out of each party’s control. This, in turn causes other companies to try to develop new ways of forming this relationship. Subway, for example uses “Development Agents” to help ease tensions.

The fast food industry both feeds and prays off the young. Pioneers in developing marketing strategies to target children, the fast-food chains have even infiltrated the nation's schools through lunchroom franchises and special advertising packages that answer public education's need for funds; in every way possible, giving the children a loyal friend to rely on. In many franchises, teenagers are perfect candidates for low-paying, low-skilled, short-term jobs and constitute a large part of the fast-food chains' workforce; and often practically run individual locations, having more responsibility than most adults.

done studies that shows employees morale and work ethic increase when given a fair wage. This

Many people in the United States believe that a wage increase will benefit the poorest minimum wage worker. However, this is not the case. To save their companies from financial distress, many owners will decrease the number of hours they work their employees. Instead of

Did you know minimum wage was $0.25 per hour in 1938? Since then it has raised to a whopping $7.25. Most readers will agree that there is a problem with this current minimum wage, considering the cost of living and salaries, Etc. However, they might not understand the complexity of the issue. In fact, the topic is not simply a question of if the minimum wage should be increased or kept the same, but more of a complex issue involving the different viewpoints on why people agree or disagree. Some reasons why people might agree is: decreasing poverty, increase in government aiding, and cannot afford basic needs. In opposition, opponents of the minimum wage might say it increases poverty, increases unemployment (specifically among unskilled or

Throughout history of the US, workers has been treated unfairly and not compensated for their contributions in the workforce. Additionally, many have not even been recognized for their efforts. However, in order to earn decent wages, it takes policy makers at least 7 – 10 years, before even mentioning an increase in wages (DOL, 2016). In the past, when an increased was provided, it was still insufficient for low-income workers and their families. While some policy makers deem that an increase in wages is economically fair, others still oppose the concept, thus making it difficult for minimum wage earners (Hovenga et al, 2013).

“Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business”-Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco. Many of America’s employees are not being paid well, however, for the annual income of a full-time employee who works year-round is less than $16,000 (about $15, 080) according to the current federal minimum wage (Rebuilding). To put into retrospect how out-dated the federal minimum wage is, consider that the minimum wage of 1956 amounted to exactly $7.93 in 2009 (Henderson). How progressive is it that our nation’s workers being paid less today than workers from the 50’s? The federal minimum wage should be raised in order to assist families out of poverty, to ensure the effort and loyalty of workers, and

How does fast food affect America’s economy? Does fast food affects Americans economy in the bad way or good way? Some people say that fast foods are ruining Americans economy. They want to reduce effects of the fast food industry in America. However, the advocates do not agree because they think that fast foods are giving a major boost to the economy. They give out a few examples about the advantage of fast food to the economy such as proving jobs or helping America’s agriculture by purchasing agriculture products. In my point of view, the fast foods are affecting American economy negatively, which can be seen through the average wages of Americans, the cost of medical care for fast food