By Andrew Hoenig | Assistant Editor
Mount Wachusett Community College – Students in Business Ethics 105-E were part of a recent survey concerning the ethicality and practicality in the recent decision of the McDonald’s fast food chain to “raise its minimum wage by $1 over the locally mandated minimum pay for its corporate-owned locations which began last July.” (According to CNBC)
The hope is that the company can raise the wage to $15 an hour.
The students’ responses to this were based on a series of three questions about this eventual $15 an hour wage.
The first question asked was if they agreed with the company’s decision to raise their wages?
The majority of students said “no” mainly on the basis that there are many jobs where employees get paid less for doing more. Jobs that require an education and extensive training or more important jobs like EMTs and paramedics.
The minority who said “yes” agreed saying that if the company can afford to do so, than it should and that the company has every right to do so. One student in the survey pointed out how it’ll help people stop living paycheck to paycheck.
The second question asked the students to elaborate more on whether they answered “yes” or “no” to the first question, the “why” they answered the way they did.
The majority who said “no” continued to defend their answer by saying that working for McDonald’s does not require that much skill and experience and that there are plenty of other jobs more deserving of the pay raise. The majority also seemed to agree that the company’s wages should remain at $10 like everyone else (in Massachusetts for those of you from New Hampshire who may be reading this). Some in the majority even said if anything the state wage should go up and that it should be based on the cost of living in that state not nation-wide.
The minority backed up their answer of “yes” by further stating that the raise would not have drastic effects on those outside of McDonald and that if the company can afford to give their employees a raise in pay and properly balance the wage then McDonald’s has every right to do so.
Question #3 focused on whether or not this raise in pay to an eventual $15 would affect consumers or not. Will the prices on McDonald’s menu go up to compensate for this new employee wage? The question also asked if, as a consumer, the prices went up, would the student continue to buy their food?
The “noes” said that they would not and that they would seek a cheaper option such as taking their business elsewhere or buying groceries and making food at home or simply for the sake of not contributing to a company that pays their employees for an easy job when again there are harder, more important jobs that deserve it.
The “yeses” said they would continue to eat at McDonald’s because the company’s raise in pay should not necessarily affect food prices there because the company can afford it and that it is doing the right thing to try and help their employees or as long as they serve their favorite kind of food.
These three questions and the students’ responses to them showed primarily that people think that McDonald’s raise in wages, however justified it could be and perhaps even helpful, would not be quite ethical.
This question of ethicality on McDonald’s decision arises not because of whether the company can afford to or not, which most likely they can, but rather because of the skill level of such a job.
The majority of students feel that McDonald’s should not raise their pay solely because they can and that McDonald’s should look at other harder and perhaps important jobs and then base their employee wages off of their skill level in comparison to whatever job they look at whether it be an EMT or any other job that may pay higher wages such as the $15 McDonald’s is proposing.
But in the long run those that said “yes” they agree with the raise in wage, are saying that the question of ethicality should not even be there because the company has the right and free will to allow this wage raise.
So while it may be maddening for most people to see a headline like “McDonald’s Raises Wage to $15 an Hour” because of what they know concerning other jobs and how they feel McDonald’s should act as a business; ultimately, as shown by the students who agreed with the pay raise in the survey, it is the company’s decision in the first place and they can do whatever they decide because they hold all the cards that allow it to do so.
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