How Much Would A Big Mac Cost If McDonald's Workers Were Paid $15 Per Hour?

The plight of McDonald’s minimum-wage workers made headlines earlier this month when the burger chain published a much-maligned sample monthly budget, purportedly aimed at helping its staffers save money.

This week, hundreds of McDonald’semployees have walked off the job, joining workers from Wendy’s, Burger King and other fast food outlets in a nationwide strike aimed at boosting minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15.

In recent days, armchair prognosticators have taken their concerns to the internet, wondering on Twitter and in comments sections whether they’d be able to afford McDonald’s food if the company doubled its workers’ wages.

Arnobio Morelix, a research assistant at the University of Kansas School of Business, found himself asking the same question, so he did some financial modeling based on McDonald’s annual reports and data sets submitted to investors.

Morelix discovered that if McDonald’s workers were paid the $15 they’redemanding, the cost of a Big Mac would go up 68 cents, from its current price of $3.99 to $4.67. A Big Mac meal would cost $6.66 rather than $5.69, and the chain’s famous Dollar Menu would go for $1.17.

Morelix's table simulates different scenarios of changes in wage, from a 25% hike to doubling a worker's pay.

“Some folks online are complaining they will not pay $2 for their Dollar Menu, but the truth is that even if McDonald’s doubled salaries the price hike would not be 100%,” Morelix said. “I will be happy to pay 17 cents more for my Dollar Menu so that fast food workers can have a living wage, and I believe people deserve to know that price hikes would not be as high as it is often portrayed.”

Morelix said that his number crunching assumes profits and other expenses are kept at the same absolute number. His calculations are based on increases in salaries and benefits for every McDonald’s worker, from minimum wage line cooks paid $7.25 an hour to CEO Donald Thompson, who made $8.75 million in 2012.

This wage hike is, it should go without saying, entirely hypothetical. McDonald’s has not indicated that it’ll be raising worker pay as a result of this week’s strike.

More on Forbes:

Fast Food Workers In Seven Cities Strike, Saying They Can’t Survive on $7.25 Per Hour

‘I Have To Choose Between Food And Rent’: Meet The McDonald’s Workers Fighting For Fair Wages

Will The McDonald’s Employee Budget Help Get The Minimum Wage Raised?