Obviously, I’m coming from a position of privilege here, but putting myself in the shoes of a potential restaurant worker, assuming I wanted to put myself in a better long-term financial position, I would simply choose to not be a restaurant worker and study/apprentice for something else instead. I’d imagine that actually working in a restaurant teaches plenty of useful life skills, but unfortunately I’m not sure that experience really translates into a marketable resume. Unfortunately, in a competitive job market, there’s an opportunity cost associated with time spent in jobs that don’t enhance one’s desirability to potential employers.
Now obviously not everyone has the option to simply forego low-paying work and become a student/apprentice, and I’m sure some people really like working in restaurants (even fast-food chains), so I’m not arguing that restaurants should simply disappear. Instead, I think we should work to reduce the competitive nature of our economy so that cheap, convenient food (or similar services) isn’t effectively being subsidized by the existence of a permanent economic underclass with no career options beyond low-paying, so-called “low-skill” work. Fast-food workers should be there because they want to be there, not because it’s their only option.
American society is built around work and constant competition for better-paying work - that’s certainly not unique to the US, but the high-levels of income inequality and winner-take-all job market dynamics sort of are (at least among countries with similar social + economic profiles). We should try to create a job market where people can choose full-time jobs they enjoy and excel at without worrying about whether they can afford to have children, maintain stable housing, or be able to retire some day. To do that, I’d expect that we need to reduce the power differential between the restaurant/business owners complaining about a lack of people willing to help them make money for low wages and the potential employees they’re complaining about.