As the U.S. restuarant industry continues to battle a labor shortage, McDonald’s joins a long line of restaurants sweetening the pot to attract new employees.

McDonald’s is raising hourly wages for more than 36,500 of its employees in the US in a sign of growing pressure on restaurants and other businesses to increase pay and other incentives as they struggle to hire workers.

 

The fast-food burger chain said on Thursday that it would increase wages by an average of 10 per cent for employees at approximately 650 company-owned restaurants, and encourage the owners and operators of its franchises, which account for 95 per cent of the more than 13,000 McDonald’s locations in the US, to boost pay as well. It is also aiming to hire 10,000 new employees in the next three months as dining rooms reopen from coronavirus-related closures.

Other restaurants have continued to introduce new compensation models, such as signing bonuses and paying for interviews. Rising wages have alarmed some who fear that restaurants may not be able to survive the higher cost of operation, while others have asserted that transitioning from lower wages or tipping models is an essential step towards improving the wellbeing of employees and their working conditions.

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