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For Tom Locke, his tipping point on staff wages came back in March, during a conversation with a tired store manager, Heidi, in Coventry Township just outside Akron, Ohio.

Earlier that week, the McDonald’s location she managed for his family business, TomTreyCo, had seen a record-breaking $18,000 in sales in a single day, but as he sat talking with her at a booth, Locke realized that despite her decade-long dedication to his business, staffing shortages at the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic were really taking a toll.

She described working a 12-hour shift, sleeping three hours in her car rather than driving the half hour home, followed by a further full day on her feet. “I could see the stress in Heidi’s face,” Locke recalled recently. And so he decided to make a change at the 45 McDonald’s locations that form part of his franchise business in towns and cities across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and northeastern Ohio — he raised workers’ wages.

The most junior staff would earn a minimum of $13 an hour, and for managers that would move up to $20 an hour, well above what other local competitors were offering.

“We were in a pretty strong financial position,” Locke said of the April decision, made after consultations with his senior team and an extensive review of models examining the cost and margin implications. “I felt if at any time we were able to do this, increase all of our associates’ pay, it would be now.” he said.