It doesn't seem like you can make a claim one way or the other. Other restaurants may absorb lost labor, and the negative impact may not be immediately visible

It doesn't seem like you can make a claim one way or the other. Other restaurants may absorb lost labor, and the negative impact may not be immediately visible. If you are not cooking at home, and McDonald's is the same price as table service, then table service is the better value. It has been for me, anecdotally. We'd not see those choices reflected in overall employment stats, because another restaurant will need to hire, a seemingly net zero change in employment rates. But, it's very likely that fast food chains, including privately owned fast food franchisees like many McDonald's locations will have lost market share. Those locations may reduce their workforce, forcing people to change jobs. In the interim while the workforce is shuffled about, the losses would be invisible except in unemployment claims. And without being able to tie those claims to any profession, since those claimants aren't skilled in one, we can't make any conclusion about whether or not those claimants are the result of a higher wage requirement. The eventuality I might expect would be a loss of competition in the fast food sector, if the above is true. Of course, that's all hypothetical.