McDonald’s raises salaries for U.S. employees in an effort to find employees

McDonald’s raises hourly wages to more than 36,500 U.S. employees as they struggle to hire employees to increase salaries and other incentives for restaurants and other businesses.

The fast-food burger chain said Thursday it will raise salaries by an average of 10 percent for employees at the company’s approximately 650 restaurants and encourage its franchise owners and operators, which are 95 percent more than 13,000 McDonald’s locations in the U.S., to also increase pay.

It also plans to hire 10,000 new staff over the next three months as the canteen reopens from coronavirus-related closures.

Salary increase for U.S. businesses a labor shortage, even though millions of workers are still unemployed after the downturn caused by the pandemic.

The U.S. opened 8.1 million jobs at the end of March as economic activity continued to recover between the decline in coronavirus cases and the rise in vaccines. But employers It has added 266,000 new jobs in April, a sharp slowdown from the previous month, sparked debate about what Washington was up to causing labor shortages, accused of improved federal unemployment benefits.

The struggle to attract new employees has led some companies to offer high salaries and other benefits. Average hourly earnings rose 0.7% in April from the previous month, a sign that rising labor demand was putting pressure on wages, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Other large companies, for example Amazon, Walmart and Costco have unveiled plans to raise wages after job shortages and pressure from some activists and lawmakers to raise workers ’salaries.

Amazon on Thursday said it would hire 75,000 people in the U.S. and Canada for its compliance and logistics network. These positions offer an average salary of over $ 17 per hour and a $ 1,000 signing bonus.

The Burrito chain, which expects to lay off 20,000 U.S. workers, Chipotl, announced earlier this week that wages are rising to an average hourly wage of $ 15 by the end of June. Leading companies Darden, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, said in March that it would increase salaries by at least $ 10 an hour, including tips, and its hourly rate to $ 12 by January 2023.

McDonald’s has said it will roll out salary increases at the company’s owned restaurants in the coming months. Restaurant group entry salaries will be a minimum of $ 11 to $ 17 per hour, and the starting interval for shift managers will be between $ 15 and $ 20 per hour.

“Together with our franchisees, we have a challenging hiring environment and we need to continually renew our commitment to providing one of the industry’s leading employment packages,” Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, wrote in a letter to employees.