Part of the problem is that the main consumers of fast food are people on very fixed income. Most middle class+ people don't go to McDonald's or Walmart or Taco Bell (unless stoned). They go to fast casual restaurants like Panera, chipotle, five guys, or the like. So the issue isn't "would the comfortable middle class pay $0.30 more for a McDonald's hamburger, the question is whether a person making minimum wage would do that, as they're the bulk of the clients of fast food. And at $10 an hour, an extra $0.30 a burger, over the course of a meal, would turn McDonald's from a monthly treat to a very special occasion meal. The Big Mac is already pricy for someone making that kind of money.
Part of the problem is that the main consumers of fast food are people on very fixed income. Most middle class+ people don't go to McDonald's or Walmart or Taco Bell (unless stoned). They go to fast casual restaurants like Panera, chipotle, five guys, or the like. So the issue isn't "would the comfortable middle class pay $0.30 more for a McDonald's hamburger, the question is whether a person making minimum wage would do that, as they're the bulk of the clients of fast food. And at $10 an hour, an extra $0.30 a burger, over the course of a meal, would turn McDonald's from a monthly treat to a very special occasion meal. The Big Mac is already pricy for someone making that kind of money.