Calif. fast-food minimum wage law's ALREADY a disaster -- and NY wants some too
By: Post Editorial Board (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Post Editorial Board
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Back to Reading Published April 3, 2024, 11:06 a.m. ET
California's absurd fast food wage law has been in effect for less than a week and it's already made prices hotter than a fryolator.
The law mandates $20-an-hour minimum wages for fast food workers (with one corrupt carve-out made to order for a campaign donor and biz buddy of Gov. Gavin Newsom).
That's translated to price hikes like $4 on a Big Fish meal at Burger King, 53% higher than pre-law prices.
A comparison of the menus from March 29 and April 1 at an In-N-Out.
On the chain's signature double Whopper meal, the hike was $1.80, a bump of nearly 12%.
Progressives have turned Have it your way into Pay up, chumps!
Don't forget big chains like Pizza Hut are planning to slash jobs,leaving less opportunity for kids and less-educated, less-affluent adults.
The move — much vaunted by progressives obsessed with economic justice — is going to make the state far less just, with higher costs and fewer jobs.
And it ain't rich white guys like Newsom who will be bearing the brunt.
Don't forget the carve-out: Greg Flynn, a bigtime Newsom donor and Panera franchise owner,will not be facing any new wage mandates, because restaurants that bake and serve bread as a standalone item and did so before the law passed (basically only Panera) aren't subject to it.
The law's a regular McFlurry of corruption, swirled with insane economic policy and big chunks of payola.
And guess what?
Here's the latest on price increases at fast food restaurants
- 'Out of control' Five Guys prices ignite social media furor after $24 receipt for just burger, fries, small drink goes viral
- Wendy's is selling $1 burgers after 'dynamic pricing' madness
- Panera Bread to launch cheaper sandwiches, abandon dinner in 'largest menu transformation ever'
- Wendy's planning Uber-style 'surge pricing' where burger prices fluctuate based on demand
New York's lefties are hungry for what Cali's having.
A city minimum-pay mandate for food delivery drivers kicked into effect here April 1, to almost $20 per hour.
In response, as anyone capable of doing third-grade math foresaw, DoorDash and Uber Eats have hiked fees,and mom-and-pop places dependent on app deliveries are taking a hit.
And a bill percolating in the Legislature would vest decisions about wages and benefits not with businesses themselves but with unelected and unaccountable external boards, for all sectors covered by minimum wage law — not just fast food.
If Cali and the Empire State keep on down this path, we can expect a real Hunger Games to begin all too soon.
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Big time layoffs and increased prices in an already pricey industry. Is there something in coastal waters or are these people just fucking crazy? Rhetorical.
So glad I live in SE Arizona!
The price changes in the photo range from 0 to 4.4%. Meanwhile you can’t get a bottle of water anywhere in the US for less than a 1,000% markup over what it costs to produce - which comes with a free side order of PFAS.
Don't know where you shop. I can get a bottle of water for $0.25 to $0.50 bottle.
I’ve noticed that the last several times I’ve wanted a water it was priced between $2.50 and $7.00. That’s just the truth. I’m not referring to grocery store bottled water, I’m talking about gas stations, convenience marts, hotels, convention centers, etc. I don’t eat fast food but I’m guessing it’s not reasonably priced there either.
So, where will the money come from to pay the higher wages? What the signs show is that wage increases are passed on to consumers.
Those predisposed to socialist urges seem to always forget that workers are consumers. The benefit of higher wages is blunted by higher prices. After the dust settles, these mandatory wages don't do anything to address income and wealth disparities. It's just another way to protect the rich.
Did you miss that it amounts to 0 - 4.4% increase on fast food items? Not exactly life changing. In fact, anything that gets people to eat less fast food is a good thing.
Do you not understand that at this point in the game, they probably don't know how much they will have to raise prices and to hit it with a 10% upcharge would be disastrous. They are going to have to ease into it little by little and will know the effects when income statements are generated.
I’m actually not a big fan of such a high minimum wage, but I’m far less of a fan of greedflation and the gratuitous tipping culture, both of which are rampant. The fact is, however, that if you want to sell fast food in a region where the cost of living is super high, you will not have a staff if you don’t pay well because they can’t afford to live within the commuting distance.
Customers are already subsidizing workers through the ubiquitous tipping requests that come with every interaction. Think about standing in line for a pizza in a place that doesn’t even have tables. Even if you’re stingy and tip $1 on a small pizza that took 1 minute to make and 5 minutes to cook, that worker could easily serve 30 customers in an hour. Thats $30/hr in tips (if everyone is equally stingy), on top of whatever their meager wages are, and nobody served you at a table, refilled your drink, etc. I don’t have sympathy for service workers who are on the other end that bullshit.
It is highly likely the owner/manager takes a big cut of that.
I have a niece that worked at a high end restaurant and the owner took half the tips the waitstaff got and kept it for himself.
BTW the waitstaff was making a base pay of $2.75 an hour.
I'm questioning $20.00 hour being the floor too. But, perhaps, state leaders know, should know, more about why they see it as essential to do so. Also, the "annual increase" is concerning too. I hope those with oversight of this major change in California's minimum wage know what they are doing. . . but in any case. . . we're about to find out!
I used that example because I was that customer last week. That worker served more than 30 customers per hour, but I’m factoring in time for others who will share the tips (cashier, prep workers). If the owner is siphoning off tips for $25 pizzas that have $2 worth on ingredients in them then that is especially egregious.
$2.75 is the lowest base pay. It goes up to around $7.50/hr state minimum from the last source I read.
My same niece just took a position as a shift manager at a popular wine bar/restaurant in Texas. She will be salaried now and start at 45,000 a year. That isnt much more than 20 dollars an hour for a 40 hour work week. And as a salaried employee there will be no overtime pay. She will get health insurance , which a lot of restaurant workers dont, and have at least the chance to move up in the industry. Since she is 28 it doesnt seem like a totally bad deal, but its not great either.
The problem I have with these kinds of policies is not so much if the policy itself can work or succeed. . .it is with the CONSERVATIVES who brow-beat and turn all their attention to defeating change (of this kind) before it can 'work' or show failure on its own accord. It reminds me of the ACA which is working its ass off for good, but CONSERVATIVES to this day wield a (dull) knife over it and swear one day to stab it to death so help them (God).
What happens when it doesn't work, do you think the wages will go back down?
I can see a new menu item coming. The Mc Dinner Roll. Fresh baked in the restaurant and not a big seller but, it's not really there to sell now is it?
a case of generic bottled water (24) is as low as about 5 bucks at walmart.
if you buy the same bottles individually at a convenience store they will charge you 1-1.50. or more
The hilarious part is that the generic brands and the "name" brands (more expensive) all get their water from the same sources.
And put in a single use plastic container, leaching chemicals into what you are consuming. This is a main source of PFAS.
Even more hilarious is Fiji Water. A case of 24 bottles (16.9oz) bottles will set you back $40, $3 for a quart. The cost to the planet:
Finally, drank by people professing longstanding dedication to environmental sustainability.
Nestle was going to build a plant here in Sacramento. They were promising a few dozen mostly low paying jobs in exchange for a lower city tap water rate. Yes, they were going to bottle our tap water at a time when we weren't allowed to water our lawns. Public outcry stopped this nonsense.
All that in the false pretense that it will help them with the Biden economy.
Which is already pretty much a lost cause anyway!
Fewer employees, less hours, probably a decline in customers who will refuse to pay more for the same thing.
The Dems never seem to get it.
Hard to belive anyone thinks you can artificially increase wages and have no ramifications.
Seems like the Democrats do.
Seems they like to make messes and let the next guy clean it up.
And they will blame somebody else while complaining their plan was pure garbage from the start.
But, it is artificially keeping prices low that is not working either. But, some people live in "Bug-Tussle" towns and really have no clue (or want one) as to what cities far and wide are going through. I'm just saying.
That said, I would like to think that Governor Newsome and the state legislature has played out this minimum wage increase, even to include pushback from the usual suspects planning to "take it down" through prolonged criticisms or negative publicity.
Something has to change, . . . and that is what leaders get paid to do find solutions to persistent problems.
Yes, people have to stop thinking of fast food jobs that need a third grade education to do as a living wage. If people want a living wage get training or education that will get you a job that pays a living wage. Stop depending on the government to take care of you and try taking care of yourself.
are you going to fill your own orders at Mc Donalds ?
Well, I guess you need to share this 'wisdom' of yours with the government (and with corporate welfare recipients), because its wisdom is raising the minimum wage to $20.00 in this state (and probably franchises will ask for some kind of subsidy 'next'). As for a "third grade education" that is you just being insulting; but that is nothing new from conservatives. . . let y'all tell it nothing stinks in "conservative-land" but when it does y'all hold out your hands for gov'ment aid/action too!
I don't eat there. What does that have to do with my comment?
The government is already aware. They are just trying to buy votes by giving them a bigger payday and then let everyone complain about higher prices and blame the businesses for not absorbing the cost.
So exactly what education level do you need to flip a burger? Been there, done that. The training lasted about 10 minutes per station.
Welcome to the First Ever McDonald's Where You're Served by Robots
Welcome to the First Ever McDonald's Where You're Served by Robots—In Texas (newsweek.com)
Eventually robots will do so much of the work 75% of people will be out of work and on the government dole. Welcome to your future.
That is your CONSERVATIVE take on this situation and it solves not a damn thing in the real world. As if Conservatives don't do, say, and stir around all manner of stupid (cultural) bull-crap for votes! Also, it is a convenient slur to label people needing more from their labor to blame it on facilitating vote tallying. Conservative have been the boy crying that wolf tale since Blacks gained the right to vote-if not before then.
As for a third-grade education,. . . eight years old. . . can't legally work in the U.S. . . . so your insult is rendered: Stupid and superfluous.
You are right. Giving them an artificial wage that will mean nothing is much better than helping get them the training so they can get a job that pays a living wage. What was I thinking?
An 18 year old with a third grade education can, but nice try.
Eighteen years olds' with a third grade education don't even register in numbers you can measure. Nice try. But bullshit.
Wow, you are really struggling. OK, anyone from 18 to 88 with an at least a third grade education can flip burgers. Historically speaking those jobs were never meant to be a long term career choice. Again, exactly what is wrong with helping people get the training and education in order to get a job that pays a living wage? In some cases that might even be fast food/restaurant management
Well, at 6 below, apparently the 'participants' in this endeavor or not concerned with "historically-speaking." And have decided that ideology for its own sake is not feeding a reality of 18 through 88 years olds needing to be able to have a living wage in California.
BTW, this is not me pleading the case for $20.00 an hour wages, because I am going to watch how this shakes out in real time.
I am just pointing out that a living wage is driving this change. . .and the status quo of "iron wages" artificially kept low in California has led the workers (and the government) to demand the change you see happening.
Same here. I stopped eating at McDonald's years ago after they canned their value menu and jacked the prices up on everything else except their coffee. Pretty ridiculous when it costs almost $100.00 to feed a family of four there! I can feed the family at BK for less than half that.
Democrat/leftist utopia. And their artificial wage increases are speeding up the day when it will come.
Have you noticed that the only company this idiotic raise doesn't apply to were donors to Newsome?
Mc Donalds has been serving people with robots for a decade.
I thought that it was about 1 1/2 years ago in Texas.
Now you just use your phone. They don't even have to buy the robot.
So there is the rationale for raising wages (enclosed in the Governor's statement above). Of course, their will be company adjustments made and needed to make it work or not. Of course, I hope the governor is prepared for the "usual suspects' " (who guard capitalism status quo like a hawk looking for its next meal) criticism!
Honestly, I don't know where this is headed in my state's economical soundness, but time will tell us.
So the raise was only 1.89%?
2024 COLA for SSN was 3.2%
Much to do about nothing.
The 2024 wage increase for federal workers was 5.2%.
$20.00-$16.21= $3.79
$3.79/16.21 = 23.38%
Not a bad raise eh?
Adults need to make enough money at their job to be able to afford to take care of themselves.
Either people should be willing to pay another 25 cents for a cheeseburger, or the fast food chains should stop hiring adults.
All honest work should have dignity and appreciation.
This idea that we cant pay you a living wage because then we would have to charge 5% more for our french fries is sick.
Agree, they should get the training and education in order to get a job that pays a living wage.
In the words of Rick Santorum (and the GOP messaging): That sound elitist. Americans should be able to make a living wage doing one job and take care of their families. But, of course, it is convenient to forget that talking point when its suits conservative 'needs' to look over and tell others how they should run their state enterprises.
So exactly what is wrong with helping people get the training and education in order to get a job that pays a living wage? In some cases that might even be fast food/restaurant management
Absolutely nothing is wrong with it. Do understand my point of view is not that people should not get an education (the greater the better) it is that fast-food workers are complaining about real world issues of adults working (and giving their all to employers. . . who accept them as employees) but ignore the 'finer points' of what it takes for adults to hold/keep these jobs.
By the way, conservatives always fall back on the fast-food work is "kids" first job kind of work. . .seemingly implying that youths are the only ones who should have those jobs. . . and yet we all have seen older adults, even seniors, on those jobs.
These older adults are the ones holding the jobs as careers . . .and they should be worthy of their work, as the saying goes. It's called a "living wage' for a reason. And, California, for whatever reasons, has a high cost of living. Though, it is hard to fathom sometimes - just how high is reasonable. . . .
It is what it is, nevertheless.
This is done because fast food work is a good starting point in the working world. Only an idiot would continue to work there.
Now for the seniors, this is a good way to augment the shitty Social Security payments they receive to cover the ever growing medical issues many have (because we already know the government (BOTH SIDES) isn't going to do a damn thing). Many work there just for something to do.
Couldn't be because shitty policies like $20 to fuck up an order is driving up the cost of living.
Well Jeremy, see 6. I can only point you and others in the direction of what the state of California list as its reasons for doing this increase. You will have to file your complain (gripe) with those officials with the authority to raise or lower the minimum wage in this state—not me. California is seeking to fix a persistent problem which is specific to its needs.
It is what it is.
Or join the military.
Funny thing is that most of the workforce kids at my local McDonald's here on the border who barely speak English live across the border in Mexico and come across to work at McDonald's or the other fast joints here.
Very good way to get a degree and / or specialty training.
Yep. It certainly helped me get mine
And it cost me very little.
Morning...well you mob get ripped off in the workforce..
The minimum wage here is $23.23 for a 38 hour week..
So if an adult works at Macca's, KFC or any other take away joint that's it .
We don't do tipping here that is almost regarded as an insult..
If you work over time or public holidays it is double time, and if it falls on a weekend it's double time and a half...
So how does the takeaway food giants get away paying such low wages in the USA but pay much higher here?
At KFC the last time I went 10 wicked wings, a can of soft drink and a small chips was $16.95 and that here is regarded as quite reasonable..
Can't comment on Macca's don't eat the crap..🤢
Sorry Macca's here is McDonald's..
Is that in US or Australian dollars? You still have Hungry Jacks?
Morning Ed...yes Hungry Jack's is here..never been to one so no idea what their prices are etc..
All is Aussie $$ so the KFC meal in US $ is approx $11...
G'day Shona. I went to ones in Perth and Sydney. All of the HJ franchises seem to be clustered in coastal metropolitan areas rather than the interior territories.
Aussie $$ and US $$ exchange rate not so far apart these days. When I was there it was about 30 to 1 in favor of the US $$.
I predict that we will see mor automation, less employees and more closed franchise locations - but of course being unemployed from a $20 an hour job is better than working at a $16 an hour job.
I am pretty sure California has taken automation into its long-range perspective. And I can give you an example: Our toll bridges were covered by toll-booth workers—until Covid-19 hit in 2020. Since then all the bridges I cross are FASTRACK (automated passing and billing)- who knows what job/s if any were given the former booth attendants.
So you are correct. . . change creates its own change. But, to be clear, that aspect mentioned above, does not mean or indicate that human workers need less pay than what is considered fair.
Of course, I am fully aware minimum wage levels are like an electrified third rail that is better left alone. . . but, the California legislature (lawmakers) and the Governor have 'deaden' the rail long enough to effectively make changes to its 'intensity' and after doing so have 'recharged' it.
They hypocrisy continues.