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Comment by OfSanguineFire | Hacker News Reader

Considering that the USA has higher salaries overall than Norway or Switzerland and comparable cost of living, it seems like the USA is just catching up and being on the level one would expect it. In those countries, a fast-food meal is around US$20.

Traditional restaurants and/or fast casual spots in the USA involve “mandatory” tipping, so even if menu prices are lower, I would assume that the total meal price is higher once one includes the tip, which nowadays is up to at least 20% if not 25%. I remember a Facebook thread that drew some angry wait staff posting things like “You better tip X% or you’re going to get some nastiness in your food next time”, and they were mainly coming from low-end chains.

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Oh man, I remember being shocked a Big Mac Meal went for 11 CHF in Lausanne in...2006. It must be up to at least 20 CHF now.

I just got back from Japan, however, and I was absolutely spoiled by how affordable eating out was, really good food and no tipping culture. Heck, even the convenience stores in Japan provide better options than most fast food restaurants in the states. But I got a sense that the workers are struggling with the current system.

Total comp + benefits + social welfare for a fast food worker in Norway or Switzerland is far better than the equivalent for a fast food worker in Minnesota, the price rising in Minnesota to match Norway would not be commensurate as the Minnesota worker has far worse lifestyle economically.

I wasn’t thinking of the fast-food workers but rather the clientele. With American salaries being as high as they are, and a lot of other things in life being priced relatively high, I would have expected the American fast-food industry to easily get away with raising prices up to $20/meal, at least in some US markets.

America is a lot better at logistics and has lower energy costs, too, though.

Lower-end fast food is also pretty price sensitive since most the people who buy it don’t have the high salaries you might be thinking of. In general, the people earning those would never eat at McDonald’s.

> America is a lot better at logistics and has lower energy costs, too, though.

Are you sure about that?

The immediate counter example that springs to mind is the suspicion that (say) India feeds a lot more people with a lot less energy consumption (per capita but likely also in total).

The commenter I was replying to was speaking of Switzerland, not India. I was referring to the cost of energy, not the total usage. You’re totally right that India uses less energy in general (in total usage per person, but not sure about per McDonald’s meal). And the energy is cheaper there.

For comparison here are the costs per kwh in USD for the three places I see with a quick Google:

    Switzerland: 33¢
    United States: 23¢
    India: 11¢

Fast casual does not have 'mandatory' tipping, but traditional restaurants do. Fast casual and fast food have started to include the tip options on credit card POS machines, but it's running into some public backlash.

Yeah I mean tipping is weird.

At least in Florida, if you’re an employee that makes tips, your employer can pay you less than min wage as long as the tips bring you to at least min wage.

I never understood why this was a thing. If you just charge more for the food, you don’t need to put the onus of paying your staff literally directly on the customer

Switzerland still seems to have significantly higher average salaries than US?

$90k vs $56k

Of course if you start comparing individual states it would be quite different.

I think a lot of the tables which compare household income etc. are PPP adjusted and CoL is quite a bit higher in Switzerland

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