This Is What Would Happen If Fast-Food Workers Got Raises

Even McDonald’s (MCD) own hypothetical household budget (pdf) for its restaurant employees seems to suggest it’s difficult, at best, for many in its low-wage workforce to make ends meet.

And all this week thousands of fast-food workers at many of the biggest U.S. restaurant chains have staged short-term walkouts in seven cities: New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Mo., and Flint, Mich. The workers are demanding a pay raise to $15 an hour, compared with current average wages across the industry that are closer to the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

President Obama has proposed raising the lowest wages to $9 an hour, which would be a 24 percent jump over the minimum wage.

Food-service workers are among the lowest paid in the country. Here’s what Payscale.com data, based on about 3,000 employee surveys, show about how much workers are making at the country’s 10 biggest fast-food chains compared with workers in other fields. Not all the chains listed here are facing protests this week—they are instead being highlighted for the size of their workforces: