[tptacek]

Probably not. A typical fast food restaurant generating several million in sales does mid-six-figures operating profit, with payroll one of the top expenses. Sure, any fast food restaurant could dial up payroll as a % of sales, but not so much that they'd be moving to a different class of employee.

Moreover, the most successful (ie, profitable) fast food restaurants are successful in part because they keep payroll constrained by (a) employing lots of part-time labor and (b) having staffing be elastic with demand. The best workers aren't clamoring to take part-time jobs.

So I think this is one of those sentiments that sounds good on a message board but has no real bearing on reality. But: I welcome a counterargument; I'm no expert, nor would I ever consider franchising a fast food restaurant.