McDonald’s USA
— Employee: $15/hr, no benefits
— Big Mac: $5.90
McDonald’s Denmark
— Employee: $22/hr, 6 weeks vacation, 1 year paid maternity leave, life insurance, pension
— Big Mac: $5.66
Tell us more about how raising the minimum wage would affect the cost of hamburgers.
Also Denmark has a functioning free healthcare system.
Damn commie bastards!
@MarkHoltom @Heliograph Did you happen to notice today’s Guardian side eyed piece on super yachts? These people are so beyond reason. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/oct/20/excessive-wealth-extreme-emissions-and-ecocide-what-i-learned-at-europes-big-superyacht-show?
@wendinoakland so many options to blow your money on :blobgrimace: decadence as a life style is a real thing now
@MarkHoltom
@Heliograph @MarkHoltom instead of providing a living wage, you mean, or a viable healthcare option, or affordable housing, or childcare for your zillions of workers, you can hoard that moolah and get a monster yacht and a huge support boat for the very necessary accoutrements of the life of a businessman.
@wendinoakland yes that one ☹️ the old adage is true, money corrupts
@MarkHoltom
@wendinoakland @MarkHoltom @Heliograph Those things are not "yachts".
A "yacht" has mast(s) and sails.
Those things are (your choice of) "plastic Noddy boats" or "floating gin palaces".
@TimWardCam @wendinoakland @MarkHoltom @Heliograph Having worked in a boatyard and built some "Noddy Plastic Boats" from bottles of "stuff", those are just a tad larger than the Noddy ones!
FGP is more like it though. 😉
@NormanDunbar @wendinoakland @MarkHoltom @Heliograph OK, so I know "plastic Noddy boat" as a description of plastic boats on canals, as opposed to solid steel narrow boats, and was just scaling up.
@TimWardCam @NormanDunbar @MarkHoltom @Heliograph and *not* the same thing as the small boat dinghies, either, because there are loads of boats with derogatory names, innit.
@TimWardCam @wendinoakland @MarkHoltom @Heliograph Some of those FGPs are plastic!
@NormanDunbar @TimWardCam @MarkHoltom @Heliograph merely reporting it as I sees it. The Guardian said it and all dem rich bois seem happy to pretend.
@wendinoakland @NormanDunbar @MarkHoltom @Heliograph There's that Instant Sunshine song about rich people pretending to be into sailing.
@TimWardCam that’s wonderful!🍸✨@NormanDunbar @MarkHoltom @Heliograph
@TimWardCam
I'd almost forgotten Instant Sunshine. Lovely.
@wendinoakland @NormanDunbar @MarkHoltom @Heliograph
@MarkHoltom note that the healthcare system isn’t “free” as in free beer. everyone pays for it. a part of that salary goes into the system, obligatory.
@peterfr @MarkHoltom free at point of use and still you pay much much less for it than that glorious capitalist private healthcare in the US. So yeah better- your point?
@Darkedge @peterfr @MarkHoltom
I pay an effective 6% tax on my gross pay for the premiums on my employer's insurance. This is in addition to social security, Medicare, and state+federal tax.
But I also have to pay 10% of any medical procedure up to a maximum out-of-pocket limit that amounts to an additional 7% of my gross. So if I have a bad health year, I will spend 13% of my gross income just on healthcare.
And that doesn't include prescriptions or co-pays (for those not subject to American-style healthcare, one pays a relatively small amount at point of care to each provider). So, a few weeks of physical therapy, for example, might cost an additional several hundred dollars in follow up appointments. After you spent a few thousand going through whatever health crisis that caused you to need therapy.
I keep being told how terrible socialized healthcare is, but I'm beginning to think I'd like to try it. Just to compare.
@brandoncarey @peterfr @MarkHoltom most sensible countries healthcare you'd pay Medicare equivalent tax and then nothing for proceedures and usually a low fixed rate for each prescription (if you pay at all) - people with ongoing medical conditions get help with ongoing prescriptions too. Eg in uk diabetics don't pay for them. Yes it's much cheaper for everyone.
@Darkedge @brandoncarey @peterfr @MarkHoltom in Scotland the government realised that so few people were having to pay for prescriptions it was better not to charge anybody. And that way the poor don’t skip prescriptions and end up in hospital, costing the NHS ££££
@peterbrown @brandoncarey @peterfr @MarkHoltom yeah wish they did that in the rest of the country.. several things are done better north of the border like house sales & the NHS in general
@Darkedge @brandoncarey @peterfr @MarkHoltom and that’s why they will do everything they can to shut down the Scottish Parliament or at least remove its powers.
They find it embarrassing.
@Darkedge @brandoncarey @peterfr @MarkHoltom the Scottish Government has very little in the way of fiscal powers but they have used what little power they do have to mitigate child poverty
@Darkedge @MarkHoltom my point is i wanted to point out that it’s not “free”. everybody pays a bit, the ones who need it get it. that’s the whole concept of a public healthcare system.
The cheapest Big Mac in the USA is Austin,Texas: $4.36
The Big Mac in Denmark costs kr46 (DKK) — about $7.04
I think we're on the same side but experience has taught me that facts should be handled carefully.
@Nina_cried @MarkHoltom also for correctness I presume danish worker might pay higher tax from their wage than their us counterpart? Even so, they are probably massively better off but would be good to see whole picture
@MarkHoltom Those numbers are secondary to McDonald's. What matters to them is how much *profit* they make. If it's less in Denmark then they're going to whine.
@MarkHoltom It's not free healthcare it's universal healthcare paid through taxes. It's the right thing to do, and particularly explains cost/pay differences. The US is currently far from being there. This election cycle will tell us if we can reverse the trend or not. 2026 and 2028 are crucial turning point elections in the US. I am cautiously optimistic my fellow Americans see this too.
@RegGuy @MarkHoltom I simply cannot believe these people are defending the US system or even parts of it. It is state sponsored suffering.
A sick system
@peterbrown @MarkHoltom It's a mess. There is a belief system in the US about US exceptionalism that keeps too many believing our system is the best. Regardless of data. Going to the doctor is a frustrating practice here. Insurance limits them to 15 minutes, which is useless for anything but BP, listen to heart, sign for blood tests, and give a script. That's healthcare in the US, it's a factory system that truly does not work.
@MarkHoltom
Not to be pedantic but being Denmark adjacent, I disagree with characterizations of the healthcare systems here as "FREE".
They are not free. We pay a lot through various systems that involve employer payments, direct personal payments and of course taxes. But all are covered one way or another.
What we do require is that greed be moderated. The Billionaires contribute taxes, certain prices capped, and wages must sustain a dignified life. Not perfect but better by strides.
@TrimTab @MarkHoltom nothing is free but everyone knows what is being referred to
@MarkHoltom and you work only 37 hours per week.
@MarkHoltom
McDonald’s USA
— Employee: $15/hr, no benefits
— Big Mac: $5.90
👉 An employee can buy 2.5 Big Macs per hour of work.
McDonald’s Denmark
— Employee: $22/hr, 6 weeks vacation, 1 year paid maternity leave, life insurance, pension
— Big Mac: $5.66
👉 An employee can buy 3.9 Big Macs per hour of work.
Vkus ochka (Russia)
— Employee: $2.10 – $4.30/hr (Regions vs. Moscow), 4 weeks paid vacation, paid maternity leave, health insurance, free meals
— Big Mac (Big Hit): $2.40 – $2.65
👉 An employee can buy 0.8 to 1.6 Big Hits per hour of work. In the regions, you need to toil for 1.2 to 1.3 hours to afford just one burger.
@dominic @MarkHoltom we get the point but your numbers are not helping. Remove taxes from both salaries(US person does not pay much federal, if any). The Denmark person pays more taxes. They also only get two Big Macs. And healthcare, and a decent pension and six weeks leave and mandatory time off if you are sick.
But same Big Macs.
So, really, if you just use the Big Mac scale the US is the greatest country in the world!!!!!
@mscheffel @MarkHoltom
o clear things up: the Russian figures ($2.10–$4.30/hr) are gross contract wages—before the 13% income tax, but after hidden payroll taxes.
In Russia, the tax burden is deeply camouflaged so regular people stay oblivious, naively believing they only pay a "low 13% tax" because they never see the real bill.
The actual math on Russia's hidden taxes:
• Payroll: Before you see your salary, the employer pays a 30% social contribution on top.
• Income Tax: Then, 13% is shaved off. Here, the state absorbs ~33% of the real labor cost.
• Consumption: When spending what's left, a hidden 20% VAT is baked into almost every price.
The grand total? The actual tax burden ranges from 45% to over 52%.
Adjusted to true net pay, that regional employee isn't buying 0.8 Big Hits—they earn a pathetic 0.5 of a burger per hour. The system keeps them broke, taxed at European levels but blinded by the 13% myth.
Oct 21, 2026, 12:13 PM@MarkHoltom The major powers are about to try and bankrupt that system by cutting off your fuel and fertilizer while you support Ukraine's defense (and step up your own).
This is the last chance that despots have to put an end to democracy using fossil fuel hegemony as the weapon. If it were 5-10y later that leverage might have disappeared, but here we are... US, Russia and China are all lined up against Europe, and the Europe's quisling parties have just come out of the closet with their plants to dismantle the EU.
@MarkHoltom this is not correct when it comes to price (12% higher in Denmark). The employee benefits I didn't check but they are certainly far above compared to the US.
McDonald’s Germany Employee 10 to 12 Eur hourly.
Depending on working model up to 40 Hrs weekly.
Some workers have up to 6 weeks vacation
Big Mac at McDonald's in Germany costs €6.39 ($7.37 USD),
SPD Schroders Low Pay country in the middle of europe shines brightly as usual.
Oct 21, 2026, 1:37 PM@MarkHoltom i like the relation of burger price to the need of free healthcare:D
Oct 21, 2026, 1:41 PMFirst off, McD’s (corporate) is not in the business of selling burgers. They’re in the real estate business, since the 90’s. With financialization being so much more profitable than frying meat, and the safest real estate investment being one where you get suckers (franchisees) to take the risks (loans), making burgers is secondary.
@MarkHoltom anybody from Denmark interested in a redheaded stepchild? I’m willing to relocate. 😉
@MarkHoltom the only thing I would change on your post is replace word "free" for "public". This is aimed at Americans, who are (for some unknown reason) allergic to word free, and let's be honest, our healthcare system isn't actually free (and I'm so glad, that we have it, unlike in USA).
@MarkHoltom Obviously this is why the USA needs Greenland — to boost minimum wage and introduce free healthcare.
@MarkHoltom "oh, but the money we save in US we use to subsidise our operation in .dk!" /s
@MarkHoltom
Now that Trump serves communist Russia, are the commie basterds the USA?