Yesterday, Fox host Neil Cavuto debated Stewart Acuff, formerly Organizing Director of the AFL-CIO, about workers protesting at McDonald’s headquarters for a $15/hour minimum wage. Cavuto was so upset, you’d think the money was coming out of his own pocket.
Acuff tried to argue why he thinks $15 is the minimum for a living wage. But Cavuto kept interrupting him.
“Stewart, that’s double what it is in a lot of parts of the country now. That’s a big pill,” Cavuto said, during one interruption.
Acuff agreed but said, “We haven’t had an increase in the minimum wage since 1996, so we need a big step. …We’ve got the highest income inequality in the world, in this country. …If you believe in family values, then you will believe in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.”
Cavuto kept insisting he was not an apologist for McDonald’s – but he kept acting like one. He said McDonald’s is “a company that’s beginning to lose business, and is getting eaten alive by its competitors. Is this the time to force a one-size-fits-all wage on them?”
”Absolutely,” Acuff said. “McDonald’s is not going to move all their businesses to Malaysia or Indonesia.”
”A lot of McDonald’s are likely going to close,” Cavuto protested.
“That is not true,” Acuff contended. “Every other fast food owner in America - McDonald’s undercuts them.”
”That’s not true,” Cavuto claimed. “I’m not an apologist for McDonald’s. I like all the fast food guys.”
Acuff said, “Everybody should double” their minimum wage.
Cavuto asked if people would pay “double for a burger, double for fries, double for a happy meal.”
From there, the two argued about how much higher McDonald’s prices would go if the minimum wage doubled.
Finally, Cavuto said, “I love you to death but I’m telling you, you are writing a prescription for the death of employees across the country. I could see a higher miniumum wage, that I agree with you, I tell you, but doubling it? Man, oh man! Not doubling it, Stewart, not doubling it!”
Watch it below, from the May 20 Your World.