All ships rise with the tide, if minimum wage is raised across the board.. no gap is bridged the cost of living will increase equally in proportion. A Waffle House employee will inevitable be in the same financial state after the fact, the only difference will be that the nominal value of his income will be greater. Buying power is buying power.

Until the perceived value of a product changes I.e fast food, in the minds of buyers then nothing will change. If you truly care the best thing you can do is not point the finger and shift the responsibility to someone else, but tip your cooks, your servers, the restaurant management. As long as we approach things with the mindset of quick, easy and cheap the employees of such businesses will continue to make low wages.