I understand that the cost of living especially keeping a roof over your head has increased exponentially, particularly over the past few years.
I am ignoring that part for this post however, because people barely scraping by, despite slaving away for 160+ hrs a month is not a new phenomenon, and certainly not limited to the more expensive areas in the world.
If you can't pay your staff a living wage, you shouldn't be in business. Period. And it's past time companies and corporations acknowledged who really makes things run, and that they will never be better than the people who actually do the work.