Guest Blog: McDonald’s Employee Weighs in on ‘Fight for $15′ [OPINION]

Two days after several people were injured at a 'Fight for $15' rally in Flint and arrests were made at a similar rally in Detroit, I invited my son to weigh in on McDonald's employees' quest to be paid $15 dollars an hour. David is 20 years old and has worked at a Grand Blanc McDonald's for more than three years. He shares his thoughts here.

McDonald's employees all across the country are participating in a "Fight for $15" rally in the hopes of raising the hourly wage fast- food workers are paid to $15 per hour. A protest at the Dort Highway McDonald's resulted in several injuries when a truck hit those several people who were protesting.

Minimum wage in Michigan is currently $9.25. Many employees do not believe that this is a fair, livable wage for the average Michigan citizen.

Raising fast-food workers' wages to $15 per hour may sound like a reasonable solution initially, but in my opinion as a McDonald's employee, it will come at a high cost.

If fast-food workers were to be paid $15 per hour, the cost of already rising prices for fast food menu items would skyrocket.

For a typical fast food place, labor is the largest expense the business faces. With the cost of labor rising more than 50%, business owners would be forced to cut labor to the bare minimum levels in order to earn a profit. This change would undoubtedly result in longer wait time in the drive thru and at the counter.

In my opinion, many independently-owned fast food businesses would struggle to survive if they were forced to pay employees $15 per hour. At the point of massive changes in price and extensive wait time, there would no longer be an advantage to eating in a fast food restaurant, compared to a typical sit-down restaurant.

Even though a Big Mac is a delicious sandwich, it's starting to seem a little less appealing.

Certainly some adults work fast-food jobs because many high school and college students aren't able to work during the day and overnight. But a significant number of these jobs are geared toward students. They are entry-level jobs. As a fast-food worker, I work hard and I see many others who work hard too. But paying students and adults who are working entry-level jobs $15 an hour to me seems unrealistic.

- David McIntyre