McDonalds Store is Desperate for Employees that it is Offering Free iPhones

In a tweet that has gone viral, one McDonald’s restaurant in Illinois is offering iPhones to try to attract new workers.

The photo, which was captured by Twitter user @Brogawd_, was shared on Sunday evening, and reads,” McDonald’s Now Hiring. Free iPhone.”

The sign, which is located at a McDonald’s in Altamont, Illinois, had fine print at the bottom that says: “After 6 months employment & meet employment criteria.”

The global fast-food chain is competing with other restaurants that are hiring nationwide. Another McDonald’s store in Florida offered $50 to people just to show up for a job interview.

Desperation has been mounting for fast food stores to gain employees as the coronavirus pandemic eases up.

“Customers are coming back faster than restaurants can staff up,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “By raising pay, they are able to get more workers in the door.”

McDonald’s said this month that it will raise pay for workers in its 650 company-owned stores to an average of $15 an hour by 2024. Entry-level employees will make $11 an hour. The company is urging its 14,000 franchised restaurants to make the same changes.

Gad Levanon, a labor economist at the Conference Board, a business research group, said labor shortages will probably be temporary.

“The fear of COVID is probably going to decline, schools are probably going to open in September, the extra unemployment benefits will end in September,” he said. “So we will see some easing in labor shortages.”

Fight for $15 and a Union, a labor group that is trying to unionize fast food workers, said that the increases aren’t enough and plans to demand a starting wage of $15 per hour for all McDonald’s workers.

“Clearly, McDonald’s understands that in order to hire and retain talented workers, something needs to change,” McDonald’s employee and union organizer Doneshia Babbitt stated. “Now, they’re raising pay for some of us and using fancy math tricks to gloss over the fact that they’re selling most of us short.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.