Minimum Wage, Maximum Controversy

Employees of fast food restaurants such as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC are on strike in cities from New York to Detroit.

They are asking for more than minimum wage ($7.25), chanting slogans like, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, $7.40 has got to go,” according to the New York Times.

On average many of those on strike are paid $7.40 an hour, not enough to pay for rent and food at the same time, some protestors told the Huffington Post (and any other media organization that asked why they were protesting.)

Some restaurant-industry lobbyists have tried threatening the workers saying if their wages are increased things will ultimately be worse for them. The Employment Policies Institute actually took out a full-page ad in USA Today depicting a fast food server with an iPad for a face. Get it? Servers could become obsolete completely with technology.

The Daily Beast has this handy McPoverty calculator (clever) to see how much paying a few cents more for a Big Mac would affect the wages of employees.

In Forbes, one advocacy group backing the strike went so far as to say giving these workers increased wages could benefit the whole community where they'd be spending money.

And finally, Reason made the point that minimum-wage doesn't create employment, it takes away jobs that pay too little. The argument is without minimum wage there could possibly be less jobs or the low-skill jobs available will become more difficult or burdensome.

The pros and cons go either way depending on what you read. What do you think? Should the fast food companies just pay employees more?