Costco says it’s worth it to pay more than minimum wage

In the debate to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, who is right?

According to the University of Minnesota, almost 27 percent of fast-food employees require assistance to buy groceries, almost twice the rate of the general population.

The average hourly wage at McDonald’s, according to Glassdoor.com, which compiled reports from hundreds of employees, is $7.66 an hour, or about $16,000 per year.

So what would happen if you doubled that wage to $15? According to Business Week, it would likely wipe out profits at company-owned stores, unless prices went up.

Menu prices at McDonald’s, 80 percent of which are franchises, would have to go up about 25 percent, which means an extra $1 for a Big Mac and the dollar menu would have to become the “Dollar Twenty-Five Menu.”

But wait a minute – we have a very famous local company, Costco, that pays far above minimum wage, and makes plenty of profit.

CBS’ Moneywatch quoted a Costco exec [Joel Benoliel] who said companies like McDonald’s are so focused on paying the minimum, they fail to look at productivity per hour.

Costco’s experience is that higher wage employees are more productive.

And that “If you have the best people in the marketplace working very hard because they’re being paid better, you end up spending less on labor, not more.”

Makes sense to me. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on your job when you’re worried about whether you’ll be able to make rent that week.

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