Hitting the drive-through for a cheap meal is a thing of the past. In a new report, LendingTree found that, across the largest metros in the U.S., the average fast food meal costs double digits—$11.56 to be exact.
Even in the cheapest area, which was found to be Columbus, Ohio, people still shell out an average of $10.01 for a fast food meal. The situationis the worst in San Francisco, California, where it costs an average of $13.88 for a fast food meal.
Per the site, the rising cost of fast food means that nearly 80 percent of Americans now consider a meal of the ilk to be a luxury.
The findings are in line with what a FinanceBuzz analysis reported in 2024: average fast-food prices rose between 39 and 100 percent over the last decade. All of those increased outpaced that of inflation, the site reported.
Fast Food Workers Can’t Afford the Meals They Serve
The uptick in fast food prices has not translated to higher salaries for workers at the eateries. In fact, LendingTree found that, even if they work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, fast food workers can’t cover their basic expenses in any of the country’s 50 largest metros.
Even worse, their wages aren’t enough to afford the meals they’re shelling out. The site found that such employees, who make $15.07 per hour on average, need to work more than twice as long as those earning average wages to buy a typical fast food meal.
Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, called the company’s findings “troubling.”
“No one has ever expected to get rich off of fast food wages, but the fact that these workers can’t even expect a livable wage is troubling,” he said. “Unfortunately, the situation isn’t likely to get better anytime soon.”
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