I guess the point is that if McDonald's has so much excess revenue that they can afford to buy back shares, then that's strong evidence that they aren't paying

I guess the point is that if McDonald's has so much excess revenue that they can afford to buy back shares, then that's strong evidence that they aren't paying their workers enough. Investing in their workforce would likely reap benefits in terms of customer satisfaction, as attempting to order from bored, distracted workers who will inevitably get your order wrong in a dirty establishment probably contributes just as much to falling sales as the quality of the food. Combine that with the huge costs to taxpayers of distributing excess cash as barely-taxed capital gains rather than high-multiplier income, along with the costs of providing food stamps and other income assistance to full-time workers who live below the poverty line, and stock buybacks of this sort represent a massive net wealth transfer from employees and middle-class taxpayers to generally already-wealthy stockholders.