Industry aims to polish up employer imageIndustry aims to polish up employer image

In April two high-profile strikes in New York and Chicago gained national attention by assailing quick-service restaurants for creating only dead-end, minimum-wage-paying jobs, perpetuating the image of the industry as one populated chiefly by underpaid burger flippers.

The stubborn myth that restaurants provide only jobs with little or no career potential has been around for decades, but the economic downturn and persistently high unemployment rate have forced operators once again to actively defend themselves against this newly re-energized wave of criticism.

This was apparent last month when the National Retail Federation — the parent of the National Council of Chain Restaurants — kicked off a campaign “to broaden and enhance perception...