Smith Expert: Odds Against Workers in Fast Food Wage Rebellion

Aug. 6, 2013
Media Alert
Attention: Business and Economics Editors and Reporters

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Long odds face U.S. fast food workers who have been demanding higher wages, says an expert in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Professor Curt Grimm, the Charles A. Taff Chair of Economics and Strategy, comments on the workers’ demands that include better pay, the right to unionize, and more than doubling the $7.25 minimum wage to $15:

“Income inequality is one of the key economic issues of our time. It has significantly increased over the past 30 years and continues to do so. We will see more and more of such efforts to raise wages. Fast food workers will find it very difficult to gain both wages and jobs.

“Companies have the option to substitute technology for workers, as continues to be the trend throughout the economy. Computer rather than server ordering is on the horizon in table service, fast casual and fast food restaurants. One emerging company in this space with a strong product is Butter Systems.

“In short, restaurant workers have little leverage. Their best outcome would be an increase in the federal minimum wage as proposed by President Obama.”

Contact Grimm at (301) 405-2235 or cgrimm@rhsmith.umd.edu.

The Smith School has an in-house facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content.