Here in Pennsylvania, the minimum wage is still $7.25/hour, but the Burger King near me is paying $11.96/hour for new "team members." Every fast food place and gas station around here started paying over $10/hour and often $15/hour for new hires during COVID. Retirees earning some extra cash made up a good number of their staff before that, but I rarely see them anymore. I guess they quit to stay safe and have since adjusted to their new budgets. That plus the tight labor market following COVID meant competition for employees was fierce.
>It's gotten so bad I just don't eat out nearly as much, which is probably just accelerating the downward spiral.
I've also noticed a quality drop in almost every aspect of fast food here: slower service, more mistakes, higher prices, shorter hours. It's like the owners are trying to inch more into cutting costs without going over the edge and losing too many customers. Personally, if I want something "familiar" while traveling, I now do take-out from a steakhouse chain. Only costs a small amount more, but accuracy and quality are so much better. At home, fast food is just too expensive to make sense.
>"*RETIREES* earning some extra cash made up a good number of their staff before that
Are you sure they were retired? Almost every senior citizen I've spoken to in service jobs has told me that they're hired there because it's the only job that would take them - and they didn't get to see retirement.
>It's gotten so bad I just don't eat out nearly as much, which is probably just accelerating the downward spiral.
I've also noticed a quality drop in almost every aspect of fast food here: slower service, more mistakes, higher prices, shorter hours. It's like the owners are trying to inch more into cutting costs without going over the edge and losing too many customers. Personally, if I want something "familiar" while traveling, I now do take-out from a steakhouse chain. Only costs a small amount more, but accuracy and quality are so much better. At home, fast food is just too expensive to make sense.