ORANGE, CA - July 26: A cashier takes orders during opening day of the In-N-Out Burger at The Outlets at Orange in Orange, CA on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
San Diego, California – A new study from LendingTree paints a sobering picture for millions of fast food workers in the U.S.: the meals they serve daily are becoming increasingly unaffordable. According to the study, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wage data and average fast food prices in 50 major metro areas, fast food employees must now work twice as long as the average American worker just to afford a typical combo meal.
The average flagship fast food meal—such as a Big Mac Combo or a Chick-fil-A Sandwich Meal—costs $11.56 nationally. A fast food worker making an average hourly wage of $15.07 means working 46 minutes to afford a single meal. In contrast, someone earning the average national salary needs only 21.2 minutes of labor to cover the exact cost.
The affordability gap is most severe in cities like San Jose, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, where fast food workers must work over 140% longer than their higher-earning neighbors just to buy the food they sell.
And it gets worse. If a fast food worker were to eat three fast food meals a day—something not recommended for health or budget—it would consume 40.3% of their entire salary. In comparison, an average wage earner would spend only 18.6% of their income on the same diet.
Even in California, where the minimum wage for fast food workers rose to $20 an hour in April 2024, high living costs and price hikes at fast food restaurants have limited the benefit. San Francisco has the nation’s most expensive flagship fast food meals, averaging $13.88 each. Meanwhile, Columbus, Ohio, offers the cheapest at $10.01.
Despite being hailed as essential workers during the pandemic, today’s fast food employees struggle financially. A full-time fast food worker in every major metro analyzed still falls short of earning a living wage. The study found that in cities like Atlanta, workers earn 48.4% less than the local living wage, requiring them to work up to 78 hours per week just to get by.
LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst Matt Schulz called the findings “troubling,” adding: “No one expected to get rich off fast food wages, but the fact that workers can’t even afford the food they make is deeply problematic.”
As inflation drives prices up and wages stagnate, fast food—once a go-to budget option—is increasingly out of reach for the people preparing it.
