The rate of return is absurd.
Most franchise owners also become experts running at running a restaurant franchise making them even less likely to move into something else. McDonalds isn't going anywhere when minimum wage goes up.
Your point would have been better if you'd been talking about someone working at a small struggling restaurant that was barley able to stay open.
Even then, you're completely ignoring the effect that moving money from the wealthy to low income earners will have on the economy (read up on velocity of money). There are definitely more efficient ways to do this, but you can't just ignore the effect and state that minimum wage = fewer jobs.
>It will definitely destroy certain employment opportunities in certain circumstances.
Sure and a 0.1% sales tax will destroy certain employment opportunities in certain circumstances.
The key is to find a balance. I'd prefer a universal basic income or an increase in the EITC. But I think fighting for a $15 minimum wage that won't kick in until 2024 at the earliest, and will probably be negotiated down to $12, is better than what we have now.
$15 in 2024 will be about $12.50 in 2016 dollars based on projected inflation by the way.
Want to read a study of seven decades of historical data about what happens when the minimum wage increases?
http://www.nelp.org/publication/raise-wages-kill-jobs-no-cor...
There is no correlation with decreased employment, in fact most times, there are employment increases, and these increases are bigger in industries more effected by minimum wage like retail and hospitality.