‘How are we supposed to live?’: fast-food workers squeezed by inflation

Workers at big chains struggle to make ends meet as prices increase but their wages have not

Minerva Rodriguez has worked at McDonald's in Houston, Texas, for more than 23 years. She is paid $12 an hour and says she is doing the work of two to three people because the restaurant is chronically understaffed. Now she, like many Americans, is facing another crisis: runaway inflation. And while she has noticed the food prices at her store have increased, pay has not.

The wages are incredibly low and not sufficient for the work we do," said Rodriguez, who joined the Fight for $15 and a union movement to push for higher wages and better working conditions. They don't want to lose that extra money. If they can have their present workers do double the job and not have to pay another worker it's a benefit for them, but what happens with us? With food costs rising and gas prices rising, how are we supposed to live?"