As a regular patron of several Fast Food chains, I can say with some confidence that it is possible to get a fairly nutritious meal at just about all of them, if that's what you really want. Also, they are hyper-sensitive to the effect of increasing prices on total sales, and follow this constantly. Wendy's has a practice of offering "higher value" products alongside the standard stuff, for a significant price premium (e.g., "natural" lemonade vs. powdered lemonade), then when the premium product starts to sell well, they jack up the price on the "base" product. Pretty sneaky, but apparently successful.
Today's "Progressives" refuse to accept many fundamental facts about MW and near-MW employment. First of all, it is a totally voluntary "contract" situation. For every hiring event, there is an employer who has established a job and a wage, and their is an applicant, for whom that job and wage is the BEST ALTERNATIVE for employment for them at that time. If they had a better alternative - unless they are stupid - they would take it.
Second, this is an "employment at will" scenario, on both sides. Not only is the employer free to terminate the employment at any time for any reason - other than an illegal reason, but the employee can quit at literally any moment, and suffer no consequences other than the possible loss of a few dollars of compensation (if the employer messes with the final paycheck in spite). So again, if any employee believes that s/he can get a better deal someplace else, there is NOTHING preventing that person from doing so, without delay.
Third, a person's cost of living is a totally independent factor from that same person's economic value as an employee. If two applicants apply for the same job and one of them is the head of a household of 7, and the other one is a 27-year-old Fine Arts graduate, living at home with his parents, the compensation for that job will be the same, regardless of which one is hired. If the 27-year-old kid later marries a widow with three children, is he entitled to a raise? Of course not. His cost of living is irrelevant to the employer.
Fourth (related to the third), not every job has sufficient value to an employer to provide what may be called, "a living wage." And this disparity is not because the employer is evil, or greedy, but it is the nature of some employment. If I as the owner of a convenience store decide that I want someone working out at the gas pumps to clean the windshields, check the tires and oil, and pump gas for my customers, the likelihood is that this service will not generate much of a premium in what I can charge for my gas. So the people I hire will have to settle for the minimum legal wage. But if I can find people willing to accept that job - even knowing that they will be working at times in the rain, snow, sleet, and biting cold, and knowing that many of the customers will not appreciate the service, then why can't I hire them at MW, and why can't they have those jobs?
Because some Progressive asshole who has probably never had a real job in his life decides that MW is not a "living wage"?
Have we not heard the expression, "freedom of contract"?
One might note that the FF workers in our big cities cannot technically go "on strike." They are employees at will, are not represented by a CBU, and have NO PROTECTION under the National Labor Relations Act. Indeed, they can be fired on the spot for not coming to work and for activity that works against the interests of the employer.
And I assure you that each and every one of the actual "strikers" (as opposed to the paid SEIU operatives who are with them) KNOWS that s/he is subject to termination, and furthermore that they can be replaced instantly by others who will gladly take those jobs at MW (or a little bit over MW).
They need to go out and get better jobs, or DO a better job at the FF place, so they will be promoted to supervisor and make more money.
Really.