People are still working the same retail jobs they did in the days before 24/7 expectations and, after taking into account inflation, making about the same amount of money. https://bitworking.org/news/2008/01/the-free-market-fairy/

And? Evidently, there was a huge increase in labor supply relative to demand for that type of labor in the decades since the 1970s. Hence the workers could not negotiate higher wages.

If the workers had better options, they would have chosen to go elsewhere.

Around me, I now see restaurants and stores closing earlier, which must mean they are no longer able to find labor willing to work at the low wages they were expecting them to.