Fact Check: McDonald’s Is Not Paying $31 An Hour!

A post shared on Facebook claims a McDonald’s in Rome, Georgia, is offering $31 per hour as a starting wage.

Verdict: False

The fake announcement originated from a satirical Facebook page. McDonalds told Check Your Fact the offer is not real.

Fact Check:

The image shows a screen grab of what looks like a recent post from the Facebook page of the city of Rome, Georgia, that reads, “West Rome McDonald’s is in disparate (sic) need of staff. Starting pay $31 per hour.” The Facebook post includes a picture of a McDonald’s sign that says, “STARTING $31 AN HOUR.”

McDonald’s announced in a May press release that it would raise hourly wages for employees at company-owned restaurants over several months by an average of 10 percent, including “shifting the entry level range for crew to at least $11 – $17 an hour,

and the starting range for shift managers to at least $15 – $20 an hour based on restaurant location.” However, about 95 percent of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. are independently owned, meaning the wages are set by the franchise owners, according to CNBC.

While it’s unclear where the image of the McDonald’s sign originated, Check Your Fact didn’t find any evidence that the McDonald’s in West Rome is actually offering a starting wage of $31 per hour.

There is no mention of such a starting wage on the restaurant’s website. If the McDonald’s location had publicly announced such a move, it presumably would have been covered by the media, yet local outlets such as the Rome News-Tribune, CBS 46 and Fox 5 haven’t done so.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact that the offer is not real.

The Facebook page that posted the fake announcement – “City of Rome, GA & Floyd County” – describes itself as “not affiliated with any Government agency” and “completely satirical.”

It previously posted a fabricated image of tickets to former President Donald Trump’s “second inauguration,” claiming the fake tickets were for sale.

While the Facebook page disclaims in its “About” section that it is satirical, screen grabs of the post have circulated without a similar warning, leading some users to believe it is real.