One of the most heartbreaking moments I witnessed this past year was during my lunch break at work. My co-worker and I drove to El Pollo Loco to grab food. As we pulled up to the drive-thru, we recognized the person who was taking our order. It was a senior from the high school we taught Physical Education at. In that moment, it occurred to me that low-cost labor in the fast-food industry is a problem that has gone undiscussed for far too long.
According to PayScale, the median fast-food worker salary is $7.98. To the individual that is supporting more than just themselves, this is no where near enough to uphold a living. For years, labor activists has campaigned to raise the pay to $15/hour. They say that this will not only benefit the workers, but also the fast-food companies themselves.
The fast-food industry has seen a decline in job applicants. Individuals are conscience of the low-pay salary, and are unwilling to work in the fast-food industry. Lobbyist groups, such as Fight for 15, have campaigned that if companies were to pay up to $15/hour and offer more benefits, than more individuals would be willing to work in the fast-food industry. These lobbyists groups have worn tired of speaking to corporate directly, and are now taking the battle to the courts. They believe that it is up to the federal and/or state government to set laws mandating a $15/hour minimum wage salary. Especially to veterans and disabled individuals, companies should be more willing to give benefits that would not only help those individuals, but can potentially build a greater company image.
The fast-food industry does not seem to comprehend this “win-win” situation. Rather, they continue to pay less to their workers, and demand longer shift hours, deeming better pay to be an “expensive” investment.
So then, lobbyists turn to the government. Would government-mandated laws for higher minimum wage be the turning-point? Clinton has rallied for higher minimum-wage “over time,” while Trump has clearly stated the pressing matter must be solved as soon as possible. However, he is indecisive if it should be the federal government’s role to mandate the process.
Bottom line: it is impossible to make a living with a $7/ hour pay. It is also the loss of the company to pay less, because employees are losing interest in the competitive fast-food industry. If the issue keeps being put off, more union and labor strikes will take place, causing a lose-lose situation to occur. Thus, if the government refuses to enact laws and regulations that demand higher wage, the companies must take the initiative to raise the wages themselves.
The fast-food industry (which is nowhere near fit), is not ready for take off.
Fit For Take Off 
This touches on an important topic that the American public at large seems to systematically ignore: income inequality. These ages are not livable. They are not even close. After taxes and even after working a full work week, this amount of money wouldn’t be able to cover the rent in the greater Los Angeles area, let alone groceries and other necessities. This is something the government must absolutely intervene in, otherwise you can be damn sure that corporations will not do anything to help mitigate this problem. All they care about is profit margins and the bottom line. They don’t care about these people. They never have and they never will– until the government tells them they have to.
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Minimum wage is nominal and shouldn’t be addressed as such. What really matters is not how much people make per hour, much how much purchasing power they get for each hour they work. Increasing the minimum wage by, say, 20% wouldn’t benefit minimum wage workers if this caused a price increase of 25% in the average basket of consumer goods. I’m not saying this would necessarily happen, just saying that the situation is not as black and white as “higher wages are good, lower ones are bad”. Oversimplifying the problem can make it easy to justify one side over the other without actual evidence that this would result in benefits to the very people you’re trying to help. Just food for thought.
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