The free market hasn't done a very good job "figuring out" how to pay workers enough. If it was solely up to the market, the people with the least power would be paid pennies ... or less.

Fast food also has a uniquely difficult business structure for workers to achieve better wages and working conditions.

Businesses generally deal with minimum wage increases by finding efficiencies in their business practices or slightly increasing prices if they have to, not cutting jobs. Of course: because they need staff to make their businesses run!

Income inequality and wage stagnation finally took their place among the principal moral issues of our time.

The vast majority (over 80 percent) of fast-food and similar low wage service jobs (<$9.24/hr) are held by adults. A quarter are adults over 40. Another quarter are moms raising kids.

People decide what markets should do - they are not a force of nature.

When families can afford the basics, they can reinvest in their communities, and higher wages means a broader consumer base for businesses.