A local McDonald's shut down early Monday night because of a staffing shortage.
The McDonald's in Musekgo is supposed to close at 11 p.m. and the drive-thru at 12 a.m. The early closing on Monday night left some customers disappointed.
The handwritten sign placed on one of the doors read, “Sorry lobby is closed due to low staff.”
The customer who took the photo told us the drive-thru was closed too.
“It's frustrating as a customer,” William Bott said.
We reached out to McDonald's, and they tell us that multiple workers called in for their scheduled shifts. A manager who spoke to us off camera also says another big reason for shortages is kids quitting and going back to school which makes it tough to fill shifts.
“It’s part of the business I guess,” another customer said. “It’s tough, it’s tough.”
We talked to another Muskego business, Tres Locos, that’s experiencing the same problem. Bobby Hinners is the General Manager and he's had to close his restaurant early on some Saturdays as well.
"Very, very difficult," he said. "It’s the most difficult since I’ve been working. We hired six in the last week, but we’re down to four of those.”
Wisconsin law limits the number of hours and kind of work minors can perform. Teens under 16 years old aren’t allowed to work past 7 p.m. They also can’t work more than a three-hour shift on any given day or more than 18 hours on a school week.
“I’m just working a lot harder,” Hinners said. “Longer hours and just doing a little bit less of what I could be doing and doing a little more of what they would be doing.”
Hinners says to attract workers, he's paying more than double what he was paying five years ago, something he’s happy to do because of the shortage.
