The Minimum Wage Adjustment
We as workers and laborers are faced with countless hardships. We have to constantly worry about food, clothing, rent and medical expenses. People have been getting more and more fed up. So, in response, the official unions and NGOs have been trying to get us to “fight for $15”.
The fast food industry makes multi-billion dollar profits each year yet we should be happy with $15/hour?! They tell us how bad the republicans are or this politician or that one. Never do they tell us how it’s the system that is the problem. They told us to vote for Clinton, then Kerry, Bush Obama, etc. Six years after the election of Obama and things are getting worse, prices of EVERYTHING are rising and wages all across are falling or stagnating, that is, except for the bosses (This would happen no matter who is president). Fast food workers, for example, make an average less than $8 an hour right now, most working part-time.
Seven of the largest fast-food companies in the US made millions to billions of dollars in profits in 2012, the lowest being Wendy’s at over $7 million. Mcdonald’s profited over 5 billion dollars! ALL of these profits come from the workers !
Following is CEO compensation (rounded off) of these top 7 in 2012:
McDonald’s $13.7 million
Yum! Brands (Owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC) $14.1 million
Burger King $6.4 million
Domino’s $9.1 million
Wendy’s $5.8 million
That’s a rounded total of $52.7 Million for 7 people for one year!
Meanwhile, the unions, politicians, and NGO’s, want workers to “Fight for 15”?! Why 15? Why is it reasonable for people who do so little work to make millions a year, while most of the hard working people suffer with short hours, rising costs of living, and are forced to go on public assistance, if they are eligible? Who made these rules?
This isn’t limited to the fast food industry. This same logic is applied across the board by Capitalists: It’s ok for workers and labors to starve as long as they make their millions and billions!
The reason the bosses can make so much while doing so little is because they STEAL surplus value from labor! They pay the workers pennies so they can sell their products for millions. The workers produce the value, yet have to stay at work for 8-12+ hours so that they can pay for the life of the bosses, their private jets, yachts, security guards, mansions, etc.
If the minimum wage would have at least kept up with the cost of living, it should have been $21.72 in 2012. We are all underpaid! $15 an hour, although some Capitalists will resist it, it is NOT a loss for them! It is an adjustment, to try and pacify us workers and laborers with crumbs!
If they give to us, we should take it, since we need it, and we are the ones who do all the work. But we should never be satisfied! We should form our own autonomous organizations, not controlled by anyone but ourselves! We should always struggle for a world where those who do the work, control their own lives!
Let’s struggle for our own future, not the future of the bosses who are serving us crumbs and destroying our planet, but a future where we hold the power!