After increasing menu prices by 6% last year, McDonald’s is set to raise its prices again this year.

One major reason for this is inflation and the rise of food costs. Meat, which is an input product for many items on the McDonald’s menu,  rose from 6% to 7% in costs, with beef alone seeing an upsurge of 10% this past year. Supply chain bottlenecks and the emergence of monopolies in the meat industry have greatly impacted the cost of input products for many fast-food companies.

McDonald’s jumped its hourly pay for over 36,000 employees by 10% in order to shrink its turnover rate and attract more workers to its stores. Operating costs went up by 14% for those reasons.

The company also saw a rise in general and administrative expenses due to these higher incentive-based compensation programs. McDonald’s CFO Kevin Ozan said that he and others are not putting rising costs and inflation in the past just yet, instead expecting them to be present in the near future.

The fast food giant missed its earning per share estimates by $0.11, reporting its EPS at $2.23. It also missed revenue estimates by $200 million, reporting total revenue at $6.01 billion.

Despite the rising input costs, the COVID-19 pandemic and labor shortages, McDonald’s still reported a record in same store sales.

Last quarter, McDonald’s increased its sales by 21%, 112 billion worldwide. In the United States alone, same store sales increased by 7.5%. Its operating income grew by 41%, surpassing $10 billion worldwide.

The company shared that advertisement and promotions along with its loyalty program, MyMcDonald’s Rewards, which had 21 million active users, were the leading factors to high sales. Specialty product promotions, such as the McChicken and the McRib, brought many customers to restaurants worldwide.

Like many other corporations, McDonald’s reported record profits throughout the pandemic while increasing prices for consumers in the name of inflation.

Compensation for executives and bonuses for high-level employees continue to rise while inflation cuts into the workers’ wages.

High inflation has given big corporations a loophole to hike up prices without much investigation or speculation.

Though pandemic restrictions and high consumer price index numbers over the past two years have negatively impacted revenue and sales, the brunt of the burden still falls on minimum wage paid workers who have to risk their lives in high risk environments and  watch their first wage increases in years get eaten up by inflation.