As a employee at a fast food restaurant for over a year now, and a manager. I can firmly say that alot of you clearly are out of touch with the current economic situation.

Among the crew-members I manage about half of them graduated from college, are students, and or minors. The problem isn't that they should get low pay because they aren't skilled enough to earn more, it's that since minors get paid less than adults period, $7.40 just isn't acceptable wages for the line of work my employees are in.  i'm not sure if this goes for every fast food restaurant but the one I manage is downright hell. You get burned alot, it's A TON of hard physical labor under HARSH conditions, you don't get free meals, crew member get 25 hours a week, and to top it off, right now with the economy nobody in my area is really hiring.

I'm tired of seeing the whole, 'Work harder for a better paying job, get a degree" etc, speaking as if people with degrees aren't struggling at the moment as well. So per say you're underemployed, got a degree, went to a nice school and everything society requested of you...and you're stuck with 0 job opportunities. What do you tell those people? While I do agree the $15 a hour thing is humorous and overblown, I firmly believe that if a company doesn't want to cover the employees insurance, FINE, however if they're gonna give them short hours a  modest $1 - $2 in pay would definitely help, and make workers more enthusiastic, trust me, I'm a fucking manager and I only get paid $1 over minimuim wage. Job is stressful as shit and physically demanding and I hate it...but no other options at the moment as I'm still in school.

As a manager I also am responsible for putting up stock trucks...and let's just say our weekly stock comes up to 2k - 2.5k and our weekly payroll is 2.5k - 3k. Total revenue for one week averages out to $31,200. After paying other fees and utilities the restauraunt brings in 20K in profits, EASILY. And the people who literally RUN the business day in and day out get paid $8.50. 

I don't know if any of you guys were managers before but it definitely does require skill, patience, and dedication. You're on call 24/7 you're in charge of handling labor, any food gets stolen you pay for it, customer complaints, health inspections, assessments, meetings, shortages, bosses...it's all pretty hectic and to put bluntly. I've worked better jobs, for MORE money, for LESS work.

The fast food industry is making a killing on underemployed people and minorities. If other entry level jobs can pay $8+++ then why the hell can't a fast food joint can't? To put simply it's greed, they don't care about the employees nor the economy, only the profits in the franchise owner's hands....I can't wait to quit this filthy industry to be honest.

Not all fast food workers are in high school.  MOST fast food workers are NOT in high school.  Minimum wage is where people try to raise families, because they have no other choice.  And you know what happens? THE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZES THEM.  YOU pay for their food, their housing, through TAXES!  WE ALL pay for McDonald's CEO's to rake in the cash off their minumum wage workers because they don't have to give them decent wages.

Even if they were high school students, your argument still fails miserably.  Just 2 or 3 decades ago students would work through summer to pay for college.  That isn't even remotely possible any more.  Entry level jobs used to pay enough for a person to live without government assistance, even right out of high school.  People still went to school!

And even those who do go to college and get an education get this: No guarantee of a decent job, and lots of debt.

People who want full time work settle for multiple part-time jobs and those who want part time jobs get left out because they lack experience.

This economy is seriously f'd up, at it's core.  And I certainly blame the conservatives and their inconcievably ridiculous "trickle-down" BS.  Everything keeps trickling UP.  Can't you see that?

so you agree 0n a 15$ minimum???? you think that is realistic??????? sorry but i dont think my argument fail miserably... because when i said high schoolers... i meant people from highschool or people with high school education....... but yeah sure my argument is such a failure.... now college graduates students will be a fliping burger since it is almost the same amount of money that they will earn fresh from college... best way to make the country a better place :) now lemme flip my burgers

Never said that.  It could be higher, but really the biggest problem is that we have too many minimum wage jobs compared to good jobs.  Also, $15/hr would NOT be better than any decent job with a degree.  Simple math shows that statement to be false - a full time job would only earn about 30k, most minimum wage workers can't get full time jobs anymore.

A few decades ago a smart, dedicated, hard working person could jump right from high school into a promising career.  Now you may end up with a minimum wage job even you have a good degree with good grades, you'll just have thousands of dollars in debt now.  What's "in demand" when a person enters college could be worthless by the time they graduate.  College is more risky than ever, with soaring tuition, lousy employment opportunities and a fickle market.  There are serious problems here.  A multitude of problems, minimum wage barely scratches the surface.

statement 1: $15/hr would NOT be better than any decent job with a degree.  Simple math shows that statement to be false - a full time job would only earn about 30k, most minimum wage workers can't get full time jobs anymore.

statement 2: Now you may end up with a minimum wage job even you have a good degree with good grades

You nee to be consistent to your statements :P

I stand by my statements.  There is of course, a question as to wether or not you can get that decent job.

then you are confusing me... you said 15$ is not better than any decent job with a degree,,,,, but also now you may end up with a minimum wage job even you have a good degree....

you cant stand with a conflicting statements