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posted by mrpg on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-study dept.

NY Times:

A quarter-century ago, there were 56 teenagers in the labor force for every "limited service" restaurant — that is, the kind where you order at the counter.

Today, there are fewer than half as many, which is a reflection both of teenagers' decreasing work force participation and of the explosive growth in restaurants.

But in an industry where cheap labor is an essential component in providing inexpensive food, a shortage of workers is changing the equation upon which fast-food places have long relied. This can be seen in rising wages, in a growth of incentives, and in the sometimes odd situations that business owners find themselves in.

Too many restaurants, not enough teens to work in them.


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  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 20 2018, @01:50PM (2 children)

    by Reziac (2489) on Friday July 20 2018, @01:50PM (#709898) Homepage

    Meanwhile, people bitch that the price of a fast-food meal is now an hour's wages.

    See, raising business expenses has consequences on the other end, too.

    Also, in states with high mandatory costs (payroll taxes, workmans comp, etc.), wages are only a fraction of the per employee cost. In California, wages are only about 30% of the cost of a legal employee; the other 70%, you pay to the state. (Real numbers. Costco did the math last time CA decided to raise costs to employees, and found they'd be better off to leave CA entirely. I also did the math when I was looking to hire a part-timer, and found my $7000/yr part-time employee, if fully legal, would cost me over $20,000/year. Never mind!)

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Friday July 20 2018, @02:30PM

    by ledow (5567) on Friday July 20 2018, @02:30PM (#709924) Homepage

    To be honest, the situation may be different in other countries, but fast food in my country is ludicrously cheap.

    I know a couple who are young and potless, and they frequent McDonald's and I could never fathom why until I went along with them.

    If you buy this burger, in this deal, with this happy meal, and this drink, and then pick up some of these, and swap these bits between the two of them... two fully-grown adults were able to get a meal in about 2 minutes that cost them an absolute pittance. If I remember rightly, they even got a free soft toy most of the time, and they knew the menu and the tricks to make off by heart (e.g. no ice in the drink, two small drinks with two small meals worked out cheaper than a large drink, etc.). They use vouchers and coupons, student discounts, etc. and they have it down-pat because it's one of the cheapest ways for them to eat, and be in the warm in the winter, and meet with friends who all do the same, and they get free wifi, and charge their phone while they're there. And, quite often, whatever was left was taken home as a snack for later.

    And you have a mix of salads, and vegs, and high-calorie, high-sugar foods, and it worked out really well. Hell, McDonald's has changed radically since I was a kid, some of them are almost proper restaurants with table service now.

    I was surprised, most especially at the ingenuity of how they played the menus to get kids and adults meals to work out to feed them both fully with a pretty balanced meal each, but also just the sheer amount of effort they put into saving even 10p on such a meal. Literally, my "usual" order came to more than they paid for both theirs, and they gave me the stuffed toy for my kid as they "already had them all" just as a side-effect of eating like that. And I'm sure they'd rather have had another 10p off and no toy.

    I'd also like to point out - in the UK, eating out is incredibly expensive. The US is vastly cheaper for that, every time I've been. Personally, I can't even remember ever comparing the prices of restaurants for eating out, even when I was literally penniless, because it was also far too expensive. But now... I think I'd have to seriously consider doing what my friends were doing. They're not alone, either. I know people all over the UK who do the same, whether in big-name fast-food restaurants, or just knowing what the local chippy does that's the best value (NEVER order large chips in a UK fish & chip shop... you'll never get through them... if you order it, split it between 2, 3, 4 people).

    So I have a really hard time believing that such a place would rather not have enough servers to cater for clients than put 5p / 5c on a price of a popular product and employ someone to fill that gap.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 20 2018, @02:32PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 20 2018, @02:32PM (#709926) Journal

    I suppose people should starve because they cannot earn a living wage.

    No wonder we have a generation of people who still live at home with their parents.

    People disillusioned that there is no opportunity.

    The high cost of low prices.

    By not paying more for a Big Mac we are creating massive societal problems that will ultimately cost us far more. Penny wise, pound foolish. But that's corporate thinking to the max. Destroy everything if it means improving this quarter's results.

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