Steve Easterbrook

: The problem is that hardly anyone who works in a McDonald restaurant actually works for McDonald’s, according to The Independent. The 750,000 who will not get a pay rise work for franchisees, who own and operate their restaurants separately from the corporation. The protests come even though McDonald newly installed chief executive, Steve Easterbrook from Watford, announced a pay rise for 90,000 of its restaurant workers at the start of this month, taking their hourly wage from $9.10 to $9.90 . Read more: McDonald workers strike over pay But rather than quell revolt the pay rise seems to have fuelled one – it is a long way short of the $15 an hour many have been calling for and actually ignores the wage demands of 750,000 staff in the US. Protests and walkouts took place in more than 230 McDonald locations, including the US, Britain, France and New Zealand, while the hashtag #Fightfor15 trended on Twitter. Business news in pictures The franchisees pay a lot of money to build and own a McDonald’s. However, claims that higher wages will kill franchises are increasingly falling on deaf ears as competitors such as Shake Shack and Chipotle Mexican Grill pay higher wages while growing significantly faster. Just getting started in the US can range in cost from just under $1m to approximately $2.3m, of which 40 per cent must not be borrowings. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.