Salaries News
- McDonald's increases pay on mainland
Date: 4-Sep-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
MCDONALD'S is raising the wages of most of its 50,000 staff on the mainland by an average of 30 percent in an effort to burnish its image as an employer in China amid tightening labor laws and scrutiny by media and trade unions.
From Sept. 1, the pay rise covers 75 percent of McDonald's 800-odd outlets, involving 95 percent of its employees on the mainland, McDonald's China division said in an e-mailed statement to the Shenzhen Daily yesterday.
This is the fast-food giant's first comprehensive salary increase on the mainland since it entered the mainland 17 years ago.
Both full-time and part-time employees will benefit. Basic salaries will rise from 12 percent to as much as 56 percent, an average of 30 percent.
Most McDonald's managers who have not been included in the wage increase program previously benefited from the 'profit-award program?that started last year. In 2006, 80 percent of the company's Chinese managers received a bonus of up to twice their annual salary.
Wages at McDonald's and its fast-food rival Yum Brands Inc., which runs the KFC and Pizza Hut chains, have been under increased scrutiny in China after the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in April accused the fast-food giants of violating labor laws by underpaying part-time workers in Guangzhou.
Guangzhou-based New Express Daily first said in March that the three restaurant chains were paying part-time workers in several Guangdong cities much less than the local minimum wage.
After the salary increase, part-time employees in McDonald's, usually paid by the hour, would see their salary generally surpassing the minimum salary standards required by local governments, the company said.
But the company refused to say how much higher the wages of full-time workers in Shenzhen would be than the city's minimum salary standards: 810 yuan (US$107) for workers inside the special economic zone and 700 yuan for those in Bao'an and Longgang districts. A manager surnamed Lin at the Meilin outlet said the employees would need to wait until Sept. 25, the day the company pays its wages, to see how much more they earn.
The company also declined to say how much the wage increases would add to operating costs in China, which are also affected by rising grain and meat prices.
Currently, McDonald's has 815 outlets on the mainland and is adding about 100 stores a year. The company earlier said its mainland outlets contribute 2 percent of McDonald's global sales.
According to data cited by local media, McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut have more than 3,000 outlets on the mainland, with more than 200,000 employees on the payroll.
Although market watchers believed the upward trend in salaries would continue, KFC and Pizza Hut have no immediate plans to increase mainland salaries, Chinese-language newspapers said, citing an unidentified source from the mainland division of Yum Brands which owns the two brands.
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