{"id":16633,"date":"2025-09-07T14:46:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcdonalds-criticizes-u-s-restaurant-industry-for-uneven-wage-policies\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:37:36","slug":"mcdonalds-criticizes-u-s-restaurant-industry-for-uneven-wage-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcdonalds-criticizes-u-s-restaurant-industry-for-uneven-wage-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s criticizes U.S. restaurant industry for uneven wage policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"McDonald's
McDonald's restaurant signs are shown in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 9, 2023. The Associated Press<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s is criticizing the restaurant industry for allowing tipped wages, which let managers pay servers less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an interview on CNBC Tuesday that he supports President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to eliminate federal taxes on tips. But since McDonald\u2019s workers don\u2019t earn tips, the policy doesn\u2019t help them.<\/p>\n

Kempczinski also noted that in many states, sit-down restaurants are allowed to pay servers as little as $2.13 per hour, a federal minimum set in 1991, with tips making up the rest of their pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo right now, there\u2019s an uneven playing field. If you are a restaurant that allows tips or has tips as part of your equation, you\u2019re essentially getting the customer to pay for your labor and you\u2019re getting an extra benefit from no taxes on tips,\u201d Kempczinski said.<\/p>\n

Seven states \u2013 including California, Nevada and Minnesota \u2013 require restaurants to pay their servers a minimum wage before tips are added. Kempczinski said that policy helps lower poverty levels and employee turnover.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to do that, I think, across all 50 states. And we\u2019ve said repeatedly, we\u2019re open to conversations on raising the federal minimum wage,\u201d Kempczinski said.<\/p>\n

Kempczinski was promoting McDonald\u2019s new Extra Value Meals, which offer discounted prices for an entree, side and drink. Kempczinski said the company is trying to appeal to lower- and middle-income customers who have cut back on their visits as fast food prices have risen.<\/p>\n

As the average price of a combo meal has crept above $10 across the U.S., McDonald\u2019s and other fast food chains are competing more directly with sit-down chains. Chili\u2019s, for example, currently offers an entree, drink and appetizer for $10.99.<\/p>\n

But Kempczinski implied that sit-down restaurants can offer deals like that in part because many pay their servers a sub-minimum wage.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s feels so strongly about the issue that it is no longer a member of the National Restaurant Association, an industry trade group that represents more than 500,000 restaurants and bars. The association confirmed Friday that McDonald\u2019s has stepped away from the group \u201cdue to a policy difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Association remains committed to representing the full spectrum of the restaurant industry and continues to advocate for policies that support sustainable growth and workforce development,\u201d the association said.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s shares fell less than 1% Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

let managers pay servers less than the minimum wage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20308,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16633\/revisions\/20308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16633"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}