Fast-food workers cooked up a recipe for a £10 minimum wage yesterday with a day of action in London.

Activists blitzed takeaway outlets on south London’s Brixton Road in a protest against jobs paying as little as £2.73 per hour to apprentices.

Catering union BFAWU national president Ian Hodson said the rates were robbing workers of a proper wage and youngsters of “genuine training.”

The march stopped at popular eateries such as Subway and KFC, where the average employee can count on a £5-per-hour rate.

At McDonalds, campaigners took to the megaphone to rally against the company, which prides itself on employing workers on “flexible” zero-hours contracts.

The industry also exploits youngsters forced into the Tory workfare scheme for cheap labour, according to Mr Hodson.

He said a £10 per hour minimum wage for all “would put the onus on employers to actually pay a wage on which people can live with dignity and look after themselves and their families.”

Supporters, including the TUC, said that the improved rate would cut benefits claims and boost funding for the NHS, education and social care through tax revenues.

“It would take 5 million people out of poverty,” explained Mr Hodson.

“We believe it would fix an economy which is the sixth-richest economy in the world and it could lead to a better society for us all.”

The London action was part of a global rebellion by fast-food workers that included protests in more than 100 US cities earlier this month.

Brixton burger-flippers have been inspired by the success of struggles by local workers at the Ritzy Cinema and Lambeth College.

Their demonstration was followed by a public meeting featuring speakers from local living wage campaigns as well as members of the Doncaster Care Workers group that is also fighting for a pay rise.

A campaign spokesman said: “At a time when MPs are taking a 10 per cent pay rise and when these corporate giants of the fast-food industry are making mega-profits, it is a disgrace that the workers who generate this wealth are forced to scrape by on low pay.”