I agree that employers can do better. However, believe the real societal issue is that our government let housing, cars, insurances and other necessities get out of hand with rising cost that is independently unattainable to afford all of these on a single income for the majority of jobs available.
Years ago someone could be a frontline worker and afford these things by themselves but that literally can not happen today without some inheritance/side hustle/etc….
No shit, in most greater metro areas someone would need to be making closer to $30 an hour now if they were getting a house/renting at todays prices and able to cover everything else independently.
Yes companies don’t pay enough but housing, cars and everything else shouldn’t be as expensive as they are and the latter is what is truly debilitating.
The answer isn’t wages need to rise to meet basic living standards but basic living cost need to come down dramatically!