This is supposed to be a week of celebration at McDonald’s: it is 60 years since the ubiquitous fast-food restaurant opened its first franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. Instead, the company is facing its most serious crisis, besieged by intense competition, concerned investors, disenchanted franchisees and disgruntled workers, thousands of whom joined a global “day of action” demanding higher wages. The protests come even though McDonald’s newly installed chief executive, Steve Easterbrook from Watford, announced a pay rise for 90,000 of its restaurant workers at the start of this month, taking their hourly wage from $9.10 to $9.90 (£6.70).But rather than quell revolt the pay rise seems to have fuelled one – it is a long way short of the $15 an hour many have been calling for and actually ignores the wage demands of 750,000 staff in the US.
