McDo's

Yesterday I went to Mckie D's, the locals out here call it McDo's. Their menu is a little different, for example they don't have double quarter pounders but they got fried chicken. I find it kind of interesting that you can find fried chicken just about anywhere out here. Anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk about here. Me and my friend got to wondering how much is the starting wage for worker at McDo's. I'm kind of short on some funds and I needs a job. So we ask the lady at the drive thru window and she tells us they make 34 pesos an hour. Minimum wage in Metro Manila is 250 a day, that's 31.25 pesos an hour. So McDo's is actually paying more than the minimum wage in the most expensive region of the Philippines. Sounds like she may be getting paid alright but let's put it in to some perspective. At the current dollar rate McDo's pays about 60 cents US an hour. The price for a Big Mac meal out here is about $1.90 or 107 pesos. That's without supper-sizing the fries and drink. So if you were to work 3 hours on a McDo's salary in the Philippines you wouldn't even be able to afford one Big Mac meal. You would still come up short. This should give you an idea about the financial situation of the people in this country. Granted we are only talking about a McDo's worker here but the same goes for most people in this country. The average person living here would not be able to afford a Big Mac meal on their one hour's salary. And if they want to super-size their meal, well they better just forget about it.
Life just ain’t easy up in this heazy.