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On a recent afternoon, Hampus Elofsson ended his 40-hour workweek at a Burger King and prepared for a movie and beer with friends. He had paid his rent and all his bills, stashed away some savings, yet still had money for nights out. That is because he earns the equivalent of $20 an hour - the base wage for fast-food workers throughout Denmark and two and a half times what many fast-food workers earn in the United States. "You can make a decent living here working in fast food," said Mr. Elofsson, 24. "You don't have to struggle to get by."
Denmark has no minimum-wage law. But Mr. Elofsson's $20 an hour is the lowest the fast-food industry can pay under an agreement between Denmark's 3F union, the nation's largest, and the Danish employers group Horesta, which includes Burger King, McDonald's, Starbucks and other restaurant and hotel companies. By contrast, fast-food wages in the United States are so low that half of the nation's fast-food workers rely on some form of public assistance, a study from the University of California, Berkeley found. American fast-food workers earn an average of $8.90 an hour.As a shift manager at a Burger King near Tampa, Fla., Anthony Moore earns $9 an hour, typically working 35 hours a week and taking home around $300 weekly. "It's very inadequate," said Mr. Moore, 26, who supervises 10 workers. His rent is $600 a month, and he often falls behind on his lighting and water bills. A single father, he receives $164 a month in food stamps for his daughters, 5 and 2. "Sometimes I ask, ‘Do I buy food or do I buy them clothes?' " Mr. Moore said. "If I made $20 an hour, I could actually live, instead of dreaming about living." Mr. Moore's daughters receive health care through Medicaid, while he is uninsured because he cannot afford Burger King's coverage, he said. "I skip the doctor," he said, adding that he sometimes goes to work sick because "I can't miss the money."
Denmark's high wages make it hard, though not impossible, to maintain profitability at his restaurants, said Martin Drescher, the general manager of HMSHost Denmark, the airport restaurants operator. "We have to acknowledge it's more expensive to operate," said Mr. Drescher. "But we can still make money out of it - and McDonald's does, too. Otherwise, it wouldn't be in Denmark." He noted proudly that a full-time Burger King employee made enough to live on. "The company doesn't get as much profit, but the profit is shared a little differently," he said. "We don't want there to be a big difference between the richest and poorest, because poor people would just get really poor," Mr. Drescher added. "We don't want people living on the streets. If that happens, we consider that we as a society have failed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/business/international/living-wages-served-in-denmark-fast-food-restaurants.html?_r=1
Maybe, this is because the Danish corporate class are not trained from their adolescence to become public sociopaths.
Denmark has no minimum-wage law. But Mr. Elofsson's $20 an hour is the lowest the fast-food industry can pay under an agreement between Denmark's 3F union, the nation's largest, and the Danish employers group Horesta, which includes Burger King, McDonald's, Starbucks and other restaurant and hotel companies. By contrast, fast-food wages in the United States are so low that half of the nation's fast-food workers rely on some form of public assistance, a study from the University of California, Berkeley found. American fast-food workers earn an average of $8.90 an hour.As a shift manager at a Burger King near Tampa, Fla., Anthony Moore earns $9 an hour, typically working 35 hours a week and taking home around $300 weekly. "It's very inadequate," said Mr. Moore, 26, who supervises 10 workers. His rent is $600 a month, and he often falls behind on his lighting and water bills. A single father, he receives $164 a month in food stamps for his daughters, 5 and 2. "Sometimes I ask, ‘Do I buy food or do I buy them clothes?' " Mr. Moore said. "If I made $20 an hour, I could actually live, instead of dreaming about living." Mr. Moore's daughters receive health care through Medicaid, while he is uninsured because he cannot afford Burger King's coverage, he said. "I skip the doctor," he said, adding that he sometimes goes to work sick because "I can't miss the money."
Denmark's high wages make it hard, though not impossible, to maintain profitability at his restaurants, said Martin Drescher, the general manager of HMSHost Denmark, the airport restaurants operator. "We have to acknowledge it's more expensive to operate," said Mr. Drescher. "But we can still make money out of it - and McDonald's does, too. Otherwise, it wouldn't be in Denmark." He noted proudly that a full-time Burger King employee made enough to live on. "The company doesn't get as much profit, but the profit is shared a little differently," he said. "We don't want there to be a big difference between the richest and poorest, because poor people would just get really poor," Mr. Drescher added. "We don't want people living on the streets. If that happens, we consider that we as a society have failed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/business/international/living-wages-served-in-denmark-fast-food-restaurants.html?_r=1
Maybe, this is because the Danish corporate class are not trained from their adolescence to become public sociopaths.
