I remember the McDonald's I worked at gave everyone raises right before minimum wage went up to 7.25 to make it seem like it was their choice.
I was struggling to make ends meet back then. I had a shitty car and tiny apartment with a roommate and just scraped by. No fucking clue how people are making it work today. I have a decent job now and I'm still just scraping by.
I will say that at my current job, remote IT work is in the contract. Because we're union. And getting it out of the contract and risking shutdown because so many critical systems are run by people far away? Not a good idea. I hope it's here to stay.