MSNBC Host: Doubling Wages Would Only Increase Big Mac Prices 68 Cents

The Big Mac Case To Raise the Minimum Wage (MSNBC)

Fast food workers are taking their grievances to the street this week, striking and rallying for higher wages. Restaurant companies say that would cause prices to spike.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell broke down the numbers in his latest Rewrite segment, pointing to new research by Arnobio Morelix at the University of Kansas. The study, which looked at labor costs at McDonald’s, found that if you double every salary of every worker at the fast food chain, the price of a Big Mac would increase just 68 cents from $3.99 to $4.67. This estimate includes doubling the salary of CEO Donald Thompson who makes nearly $9 million dollars a year.

If you take Thompson out of the equation, O’Donnell estimated, and if you raised salaries of people working at McDonald’s restaurants by 50%, that move would add about 25 cents to every Big Mac.