[url=http://articles.philly.com/2013-06-16/news/40008232_1_debit-card-minimum-wage-feesHere take this debit card[/url

This is now getting beyond disgusting

Corporate filth.

This doesn't look like a McDonalds decision rather than the franchisee, it is disgusting though.

That is wrong.

Sounds like it's illegal there and (I think) would be illegal here too.

It is actually normal in the US to pay for transactions like ATM withdrawals so the issue is not really that though the cost of over the counter withdraws seems a deliberate attempt at a rip off.

It is whether or not you can be paid in a way you don't have to go via a fee levying institution to get at your cash that is the issue.

If the employee had her wages paid into any US bank she couldn't get at the cash for free.

In the UK we get "free banking" so a McDonalds franchisee paying wages into your current account wouldn't be an issue.

However it might become one if "free banking" in the UK disappears especially if you are compelled to have wages or pensions paid electronically into a bank account.

Don't UK state pensions have to be paid electronically these days?

If you don't have a suitable bank account don't they have to go into a special Post Office Card account provided specifically for the purpose?

Do we have any guarantee if the Post Office is privatised pensioners wouldn't find withdrawal fees imposed?

In this case, I wasn't meaning it about McDonalds, because, as you rightly say, it's a franchise.

That is no excuse for the franchisee (as you say) or the bank involved. The bank must understand what has been set up – and surely would know it's illegal in that state, as stated in the story.

I doubt the bank offering the service is illegal. What will be illegal is the employer compelling the employee to be paid that way because state law says an employee can request to be paid via cash or cheque.

If they get paid by cheque they will still have to pay a fee to cash it though. Or if they pay it into a bank account to deposit it and then they will pay fees to withdraw the money. That is just the way banking works over there though granted this scheme does seem to have very expensive fees compared to normal US banking fees.

I imagine a 27 year old mother already has a checking account but that will be at a bank of her choosing, not that of her employer. As you say, the charges do seem particularly punitive

The issue isn't the fees but the lack of choice of where and how the wages are paid.

I'd doubt the bank were aware of how the franchisee was using their product, a product they would have been paying the franchisee a commission on too.

Yes and I am sure the franchisee is the one where the $$ signs were lighting up first and no one in their right mind would chose an account/card that charges that much if they had alternative but unlike here its quite hard in the US to get at your own money completely for free.

I would have thought that, if there is a regular stream of cards/accounts being asked for by the company, they'd have a clue.