McDonald's Plans A Major Change That Could Impact Prices At Your Local Restaurant

About 95% of McDonald's locations across the globe are operated by franchisees, who normally set their restaurants' pricing. But soon, McDonald's corporate office will start judging how well those franchisees' prices attract and retain customers. "Effective January 1, 2026, we are enhancing our global franchising standards across all Segments to reinforce accountability for value leadership," Andrew Gregory, McDonald's senior vice president of global franchising, development, and delivery, stated in a memo, per CNBC. Those new standards will give McDonald's franchisees "greater clarity ... to ensure every restaurant delivers consistent, reliable value across the full customer experience," Gregory explained.

As part of this effort, the corporation will offer company-backed "pricing consultants, tools, and other levels that support informed choices and elevate the overall guest experience across all order points," Mason Smoot, McDonald's USA chief restaurant officer said in another memo to franchisees, according to CNBC. Restaurant operators will be graded on how well they use these tools and adhere to guidelines. McDonald's will penalize franchisees who don't live up to the new standards with penalties that range from being forbidden to expand to the termination of the current agreement. 

McDonald's is making its latest standard enhancement move at a time when the restaurant industry continues to struggle with rising food and labor costs. As a result, restaurant prices have gone up 34% since 2019 across the nation, CNN reported in April 2025, a pace that's much faster than the overall growth of inflation. And that trend has caused people already dealing with price jumps for essential household items to eat at casual and fast-food dining spots less often.

McDonald's franchisees have increased prices by about 40% since 2019, according to Restaurant Business. To keep affordable options on its menu, the corporate office has launched extra value meal (EVM) plans in September 2025. And while sales grew globally by about 3.6% in third quarter of 2025, they were still below Wall Street expectations, CNBC reported. A big reason for that is traffic from lower-income customers fell by "nearly double digits in the third quarter, a trend that's persisted for nearly two years," Christopher Kempczinski, McDonald's chairman and CEO said in a November 2025 earnings call, per Seeking Alpha. And the only way to solve that is to fix customers' "value perceptions" on the meals the restaurants offer. "We heard our customers loud and clear on the need to deliver everyday value and affordability across their favorite items on our menu board," Kempczinski said. 

For McDonald's corporate leadership to get its prices back in line with consumer expectations, it will need the cooperation of franchisees. And those franchisees don't make much off a $5 McDonald's value meal. Overall, due to a slew of franchise fees and profit-sharing requirements with the corporation, a McDonald's franchise owner can expect to make about $150,000 a year per location, and this is after an initial investment of between $1 million to $2.2 million, per Business Insider.

And McDonald's franchisees have balked at such corporate initiatives before. When the $5 value meal was rolled out in the summer of 2024, the National Owners Association, which represents McDonald's franchisees, complained that their members profit margin was below 15% and that they needed more of a "financial contribution" from the corporation, CNBC reported. Franchisees also complained about a grading system that included more inspections that McDonald's attempted in 2022, which owners feared could make operations more difficult.