The idea of “McJobs”– low-paying positions with little chance of advancement — bothered the CEO of McDonald’s so much that, when Merriam-Webster included the term in its dictionary in 2003, he wrote a public letter of protest. His plea went unheeded. “McJobs” stayed. Merriam-Webster said that it strove to record and define the words that people use, not pass judgment on them. But McDonald’s hasn’t given up. Earlier this year, it launched a similar effort in the United Kingdom, trying to persuade the Oxford English Dictionary to drop the term. As these debates suggest, the idea that franchises, especially those in the fast-food sector, create dead-end jobs is widespread. Comedians like David Letterman joke about it. Muckrakers write books about it (think Fast Food Nation or Nickel and Dimed) .…