Detroit burger joint shows it’s possible to pay workers $15 an hour and still make money

Hmm, interesting. Usually businesses keep going on about how they can't afford to pay employees more than the government forces them to do.

I guess that's only when you want to extract the most profit possible.

Raw Story

A Detroit eatery is proving that it’s possible to turn a profit while paying fast-food workers nearly double the minimum wage.

Moo Cluck Moo pays its workers $15 an hour – the same rate fast-food workers demanded at rallies held Thursday across the country.

Co-founder Brian Parker told NPR that revenue was up, despite paying employees substantially more than Michigan’s $8.15-an-hour minimum wage.

Workers made $12 an hour when Moo Cluck Moo opened last year, but Parker said revenues have increased enough to afford pay hikes for all his employees.

Here's the wonderful part. They use higher grade ingredients and people are willing to pay the extra wait for it..

ustomers pay more for food at Moo Cluck Moo, but the restaurants also use high-quality ingredients without hormones and preservatives.

Grass-fed Moo Burgers cost $6 and up — just over a dollar more than a McDonald’s Big Mac, which typically sells for about $4.80.

If I lived in this community, I would support this place with my dollars.

~Tenth

I have a hard time believing this article. His numbers make no sense for anybody that has employees. He left out way to much cost.

He said this..
"Four workers are needed for the average shift, Parker told Crain’s, and each restaurant is open 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

That works out to $60 an hour on labor, or $600 a day and $18,000 a month, the owner said."


That's no where near the true cost.

I pay a guy $15 an hour, add $5 for social security, add $3 workmans comp.
thats $23 an hour.
Thats $92 an hour on labor or $920 a day and $27,600 a month.
That does not include vacation and sick days that a full time employee will recieve either.

How did he fail to account for one third of his labor expenses?

I forgot one other thing,
They are open ten hours a day but he needs people working at least eleven for prep and cleanup time.

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
How did he fail to account for one third of his labor expenses?

I guess he's never heard of how to calculate loaded labor. Oh, well, he'll figure it out soon.

Or he's paying them under the table or with an I9.

theyre still coming out way ahead. its not a roofing company its a successful restaurant that more than likely will turn into a franchise or expand to some degree. especially if it has better food than everywhere else

a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

He's probably just not factored it in. As a small business he's probably getting some kind of tax rebate from the state ( although I know nothing of how that works in America, but in Canada you do.) or something similar.

Regardless if he's taking close to the same salary as his employees are, it's not unfeasible that he's making money with while providing those wages.

In Detroit no less.

~Tenth

a reply to: tothetenthpower


I'm a business owner with four employees, he gets squat from the state. Unless you count all the crappy taxes and fees you get to pay.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

Either way, legit numbers or bad numbers, I have a hard time supporting somebody who flips burgers making $15 an hour. Unskilled labor is just that: unskilled. Pay isn't going to go up across the board. Why should somebody who runs a register at my closest gas station make a couple grand less than a teacher? That blows my mind.

Maybe it is just one business in his own corporation that takes a steady loss with the others making up for it.
He is getting good publicity, lots of customers so maybe he can pawn it off on someone for a profit.

a reply to: Shamrock6

im with you.
i dont get it either.
its all about the poor poor burger flipper though.
the poor guy who has zero skills. the poor guy that has a record...

i dont see how someone that dumps fries should make as much as people in certain skilled trades...

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
a reply to: tothetenthpower


I'm a business owner with four employees, he gets squat from the state. Unless you count all the crappy taxes and fees you get to pay.

Yeah, I've heard it all before. My dad owns multiple hotels and is constantly carrying on with his conservative rants about how he can’t turn a profit after being forced to pay his employees the $20.50 casual minimum, plus the superannuation employer contributions (retirement savings) we have over here, together with the varies taxes and bills he has to pay. But the reality of it is his still making a killing and lives a very privileged lifestyle.

Doesn't really matter what country it is, the rich and well off will always talk like they’re living in rags and try to take advantage of the lower class!

I too, have to call BS on this article. As a business owner with employees, I see his numbers don't add up.

Lets see how Chicago does, they just raised minimum wage to 13 bucks an hour. Time will tell.

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: Hoosierdaddy71
How did he fail to account for one third of his labor expenses?

I guess he's never heard of how to calculate loaded labor. Oh, well, he'll figure it out soon.

It's not loaded, actually he is being very, very conservative. I worked at McDonald's for over 5 years. They need an hour to open and get the equipment ready, food stocked, and registers ready for customers and often they are still lagging behind in the morning even with an 1 hour headstart. Closing takes about half an hour, assuming you have good people that do a lot of the cleaning before closing time. If you don't it takes a lot longer.

Also you need to hire more than the number of employees you need to keep your restaurant open. This is because employees will always get sick, or bang in, or show up late/not at all, or leave for someplace else. This is why they keep employees on at fast food joints for crappy part-time hours - they are an extra body they can call in quick if someone else doesn't show up. If you call in a full-time employee they get overtime - 1.5x the pay. And if you don't replace the no-shows your sales will grind to a halt while you have someone doing 2 or more jobs for each order. So most fast food employees are part-timers by necessity.

The extra expenses for worker's comp, taxes, and benefits also better be accounted for. The example provided by Moo Cluck Moo isn't realistic at all.

There is nothing wrong with an employer paying a decent wage. We need WAY MORE employers doing this for the sake of our country getting back on track and getting people OFF the "handouts" which comes from us TAX PAYERS as a result of large companies not paying enough for workers to survive.

There is a great reality television show called Undercover Boss that is fairly new. I have watched nearly every episode and to breifly summarise it, it shows actual CEO's going undercover in his/her company to take part doing the jobs in which his/her average employees job. In every episode, the CEO's cant even flip burgers or clean correctly. they cannot do anything correctly or in a timely manner. The CEO's are completely overwhelmed doing even the "simplist" of tasks of minumum wage workers, yet they "earn" 6 figure salaries.

I cannot beleive people here are butthurt over someone who is willing to work and be paid a decent wage. You people should be ashamed of yourselves.

posted this in the other thread so might as well post it here.

its always about the poor workers who work to the bone. the poor workers that have degrees and just cant get a job anywhere else.
i will buy that to a point.
a kid fresh out of school and on his first non skilled job does not deserve $15 an hour when you have people that have been in the work force for longer than they have been alive making the same.

and there are loads of fast food workers that can only get those jobs because they are felons....thats their problem and choices they made. that should be rewarded?

my bro in laws sort of girlfriend works at mcnasty.
she has 3 dui's even though she has never had a license. she did 5 years for posession of coc aine and a weapons charge.
thats the only job she can get...screw her.

they were at my house so she could use my wifes computer to apply for a laundry position in a nursing home..i told her it was never gonna happen. i said those people have valuables and meds on their rooms. they are not gonna let you near the place. well she signed her consent for a background check and thats as far as it got.
they called her to schedule an interview before they ran the check..she was all excited and i said just wait.
the next day the call came in. sorry but we cant hire you. couldnt get a job washing pissy sheets.
her problem...
she is not the only one in that position...
and working to the bone. she gets 30 hours a week just like all the other employees there. some of them less than that.
on what planet is 30 hours a week working to the bone?

let them flip those burgers for 70 hours a week and work 25 days in a row. work 10 hours without getting a break.
do a few hours on the melt deck where its 120 degrees and you have to wear an ice vest.

i dont even want to hear about how hard they work and how they work to the bone.
its a joke.

dont get me wrong..work is work. ive worked fast food and would do it again if it came to that.
i just dont like when people misrepresent it.
work to the bone my ass

I think what we need is more industry. In my father's time most people worked in factories and they earned a livable wage. This is how things were ever since the 1800's. This way of living ended when outsourcing began.

Outsourcing is the evil here. Trying to get burger joints to support the families of their employees with a livable wage isn't an answer. Burger joints have never paid a livable wage in the past, and they shouldn't. It's a interim job for high school kids and college students to earn a little spending money.

What we need to do is bring factories back to the United States and get more high-paying jobs that can be filled by laborers. Not everyone should need a PhD to support their family. Most people are better suited to be laborers than they are a doctor or a rocket scientist - and we need to give these people meaningful jobs.

Outsourcing is probably the single most harmful thing to happen to the United States, in all of history. Not only has it effectively destroyed our middle class and ruined our economy, but it's strengthened China to the point where they are now the world's largest economy. We should have never sent our industry over there. Now we will soon become the strongest country on earth - and it's entirely the fault of our own greedy upper class.

originally posted by: DenyTreason

I cannot beleive people here are butthurt over someone who is willing to work and be paid a decent wage. You people should be ashamed of yourselves.

im not against it at all.
all for a decent wage as long as it is relative to the work.

the foundry brings in temps for $12.
those guys work...the # they have to do..you have no idea. and a fry dumper makes more than them at the start?
dont get me wrong. the temp will pass the fry guy up within a few months but still.

fast food work is entry level, no skill work.
its for people just starting out. for people that need to moonlight. to make a little extra cash for the holidays.
if youre an adult trying to support your family on a macnasty check, you did something wrong somewhere along the way.

a reply to: peskyhumans

i didnt go to college and i do pretty well.
my family is supported on just what i make.
its called learning a skill.
my job is hard and its long hours a lot of the time but i love it....


people always say there are not many labor/factory jobs to go around. i dont believe it.
there is industry everywhere. look at the manufacturing section on craigslist. check out monster.
those jobs are everywhere and they pay well.
the reality is people dont want to work them.
the work is hard. most of the time the hours are long.

they would rather work at mcnasty and bitch about being broke while they text off their new iphone

a reply to: Grovit

But you do realize that with inflation kept in mine since the 70's that the minimum wage SHOULD be 20$ an hour if we expect people to be able to have a decent quality of life.

Wages have stagnated even though production has gone way up in the last 40 years.

Sure I agree with pay relative to the work, but in this case it's spot on. Most other developed nations have minimum wage standards of at least 10 or 11 dollars an hour.

~Tenth

here's why he making more money, and able to pay, it's a trendy restaurant that people go and pay silly price for a hamburger.

All burgers are perfectly seasoned, and juicy.

Served on a fresh, house baked PremiYUM™ Bun.
For cheese add .90, for bacon add 1.80
Add a shroom for $3
moo burger
Top it with your choice of freebies. 3.79
over the moo
(1/3 lb.) Slightly bigger. 6.29
biggest moo
(2/3 lb.) Our biggest moo yet. 9.79
skinny moo
(Make any sandwich skinny!)
Wrapped in crunchy, cool lettuce.
baa burger

All natural American lamb burger topped with fresh, creamy feta,
thinly sliced onions and our incredible cumin aioli. 7.59
The Whole Moo Cluck Moo Menu

compare the price to the big chains, here is the one i like best. Whataburger.

Whataburger $2.94
Whataburger - Meal $5.34
Double Meat Whataburge $4.44
Double Meat Whataburger - Meal
$6.44
Triple Meat Whataburger $5.94
Triple Meat Whataburger - Meal $7.54
Jalapeño & Cheese Whataburger $3.94
Jalapeño & Cheese Whataburger - Meal $5.84
Bacon & Cheese Whataburger $4.64
Bacon & Cheese Whataburger - Meal $6.39
Double Meat Whataburger Jr. $3.09
Double Meat Whataburger Jr. - Meal $4.94
Whataburger Jr. $2.09
Whataburger Jr. - Meal $3.99

note that they get the same price for just a burger where whataburger sells a whole meal.