Cyber Monday Sale! 50% Off All Access

One McDonald's Location Has Gotten so Desperate For Staff That It's Offering a Free iPhone to New Workers The new incentive comes at a time of turbulence between McDonald's and its employees.

By Emily Rella

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Bloomberg | Getty Images

Would you like fries with that? How about a free iPhone?

In an attempt to recruit and maintain new workers in a post-pandemic landscape, one McDonald's location (MCD) is hoping to attract potential employees with quite the technologically sound offer.

In a viral tweet that has now garnered over 226,000 likes, user @brogawd_ posted a photo of a headscratching sign outside of an Illinois McDonald's.

"Now hiring, free iPhone," the sign says. "After 6 months employment and meet employment criteria."

Related: McDonald's Apologizes for Understaffing: 'Nobody Wants to Work Anymore'

Business Insider confirmed that the sign belonged to a restaurant located in in Altamont, Illinois.

People on the internet, however, were less than thrilled about the offer.

"I was a manager at McDonald's," one user wrote. "They had a thing where if you passed the secret shopper, the manager on the floor would get $100. I passed but since I had put in my two weeks, they said I didn't qualify for some dumb reason. They will absolutely switch up the qualifications on you"

"They could just offer livable wage instead of this theatrics," another said.

Related: What People Don't Realize About the McDonald's Strikes

The McDonald's (MCD) location hasn't commented on the sign or the promotion.

The new incentive comes at a time of turbulence between McDonald's and its employees.

This month, employees across 15 major cities in the U.S. staged a strike at select McDonald's locations to fight for raising the minimum wage to $15, after learning that the fast food titan made $5 billion in profit last year.

The company announced that it would begin to raise pay on an average of 10% for workers over the rest of the year, estimating that the average wage for company-owned restaurant employees would reach $15 per hour by 2024.

However, this does not include employees who work in franchisee-owned restaurants, which account for a whopping 95% of all McDonald's locations.

Many fast-food restaurants, like Wendy's and IHOP, have been doubling down on digital models and promotions that encourage customers to order online or through an app, decentralizing the typical model of 1-1 customer to employee interaction.

McDonald's said it is looking to hire 10,000 new employees across its company-owned restaurants the next three months.

Related: McDonald's will raise the salaries of its staff, but only in the US and not all

Emily Rella

Senior News Writer

Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle. She is a 2015 graduate of Boston College and a Ridgefield, CT native. Find her on Twitter at @EmilyKRella.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business News

Elon Musk Still Isn't Getting His Historically High Pay as CEO of Tesla — Here's Why

A second shareholder vote wasn't enough to convince Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick.

Growing a Business

Her Restaurant Business Is Worth $100 Million — Here's Her Unconventional Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Pinky Cole, founder of Slutty Vegan, talks about going from TV producer to restaurant owner, leaning into failure and the value of good PR.

Leadership

Leadership vs. Management: How to Understand the Difference and 6 Ways to Bridge the Gap

Here are the key differences between leadership and management, highlighting their complementary roles and providing six strategies to develop managers into future leaders.

Legal

How Do You Stop Porch Pirates From Stealing Christmas? These Top Tips Will Help Secure Your Deliveries.

Over 100 million packages were stolen last year. Here are top tips to make sure your stuff doesn't get swiped.

Business News

'Something Previously Impossible': New AI Makes 3D Worlds Out of a Single Image

The new technology allows viewers to explore two-dimensional images in 3D.

Business News

'I Stand By My Decisions': A CEO Is Going Viral For Firing Almost All of the Company's Employees — Here's Why

The Musicians Club CEO Baldvin Oddsson fired 99 workers at once over Slack for missing a morning meeting. But there's a catch.