It's been an incredibly tough year for the biggest fast food chain in the world, as they've faced an increasing number of difficulties from their lowest sales revenue in over a decade to a large number of McDonald's workers constantly protesting over their very low wages, demanding an increase in their base salaries.
A few weeks back, the heads of the burger giant announced they'd be increasing wages of McDonald's workers on restaurants directly owned by the company to $10 an hour, but the move was largely considered a "stunt" by protesters, as those restaurants are only about 10 percent - and the rest, franchise ones, are contractually in position to set their salaries to whatever they choose.
Besides asking for a pay rise to $15 an hour, McDonald's workers are demanding the right to create unions and demand employee benefits through this.
According to BBC, the new McDonald's workers protests began last Thursday outside the company's corporate headquarters near Chicago, Illinois, as the heads of McDonald's were getting together in the famous location for their annual shareholders meeting, and workers were demanding the boost of $15 an hour from the current $9 (and $10 in company-owned restaurants).
It seems like besides the many issues surrounding their treatment of McDonald's workers, McDonald's investors are unhappy with the current business strategy, as the fast food industry struggles with the rise of more health-aware consumers.
USA Today reports that workers popped up in the iconic Oak Brook HQ with the chant to "supersize my check," only two weeks after the current CEO of the company, Steve Easterbrook, announced that the current turnaround plan to improve sales didn't impress investors.
The Guardian reports that, in the meeting, Easterbrook confessed to being "incredibly proud" of the move to rise McDonald's workers pay in company-owed restaurants to $10, saying they'd "voluntarily" taken leadership - even though there have been protests for months.
