Posted on 10/01/2025 1:02:20 PM PDT by Red Badger
Gavin Newsom, California’s far-left Democrat governor, is known to have presidential aspirations.
If he chooses that path, one of issues on which he will face a grilling will be economics.
And a new study has revealed it won’t look good.
It’s because since he imposed a $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers in his state, California has lost close to 20,000 such jobs.
“That’s nearly 25% of the country’s fast-food job losses during that same period, according to an analysis of quarterly data released this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” charged a report in the Washington Examiner.
“These grim statistics should be a wake-up call for Newsom and other policymakers pushing for drastic wage hikes that will cause unintended consequences,” said Rebekah Paxton, if the Employment Policies Institute.
The Examiner report noted Newsom “was all smiles two years ago when he signed the FAST Recovery Act, creating a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers in his state. He called the legislation a win-win-win that would benefit restaurant owners, their employees, and customers alike.”
But it’s actually left behind “big losses.”
Besides job losses, there have been staff cuts, huge menu price increases and a turn to automation, the report said.
“California made national headlines when two large Pizza Hut franchises laid off more than 1,200 in-house delivery drivers to cut costs, while others, such as Mod Pizza and Foster’s Freeze, decided to close up shop entirely,” the report noted.
Paxton said, “Newsom’s $20 wage has turned out to be nothing more than a boost to his own ego at the expense of fast food workers. His consistent claim that the law is a ‘win’ is out of touch with reality, and lawmakers looking to mirror his job-crushing policies should think twice.”
Further, the analysis found even workers who kept working lost.
“The law has cost nontipped restaurant workers 250 hours of work annually, according to the EPI analysis, which represents $4,000 in lost income under the state’s previous minimum wage for fast-food workers.”
And, according to the American Cornerstone Institute, it’s hit small businesses hardest.
“Unlike their multinational competitors, small businesses have a tougher time absorbing the increased costs of labor, leading to further consolidation of capital in the hands of the largest corporations. In the same manner, a state-wide minimum wage doesn’t make sense when applied uniformly across a state as big as California. The costs of living in somewhere like San Francisco, for example, are much higher than in the rural parts of the state, where one can live much more affordably. To force the businesses in both areas to adhere to the same wage rates does not make sense and exerts profound distortions on local economies.”
Then there’s the damage to consumers, who are paying prices 13% higher because of Newsom.
University officials in the state have challenged the findings, saying fast-food employment hasn’t fallen, work hours weren’t changed and prices went up only 2.1%.
* * *
The job losses were not unintentional.
BK whopper jr. is 3 times what it was before this.
And yet the total amount of money earned by restaurant workers still shot way up. My only problem is that I’d bet a huge number of workers moved “under the table.” There’s no point having a minimum wage if you allow illegal aliens to take jobs. On the other hand, $20 and hour will STILL qualify you for welfare benefits as long as you’re not married. Why should MY tax dollars go to bringing McDonald’s workers up to a “living wage”?
Consequences NEVER matter to liberals (even well-intentioned ones). It’s all about the message, and feeling good in the moment.
Here’s some more bad news for California. Historically, after a liberal messes up a conservative comes along to make things right. For example, after Carter came Reagan.
That won’t be happening in California.
the minimum wage has always destroyed jobs.
You know, journalists, photographers, musicians, transcribers, home health workers, beauticians, etc. etc. etc.
Overnight our means of earning a living disappeared. Our wonderful politicians determined we were being taken advantage of and must become employees because of all the wonderful benefits of being an employee.
Guess what? We all lost our jobs. AB 5 essentially forced our companies to hire us as employees which is totally unworkable because our jobs are not shift work, they are project based. No one is going to hire us to sit around while waiting for assignments to come in the door.
it used to be that those to old, sick or too stupid to do anything else could work some odd job for very little money like opening doors or what not. But the minimum wage destroyed that.
Just another economically illiterate DemocRat. 🙄🙄🙄
“Entry level” jobs at $20 / hour?
I don’t know about you, but I was not worth $2/hour my first job. Sure, I tried hard, but the world of real work has to be experienced.
Also, all of the fast food workers who were let go, or were never hired, find out very quickly the real minimum wage: $0.00 / hour.
My first real job was $0.50 per hour.............
A slime mold could have seen this coming.
This is BS and a lie, according to zip recruiter the average pay is $19/hr now.
Fast Food Worker Salary in California
Hourly. Table View
California Average
$19 /hour
Why not $100k per hour, work 40hrs then retire. It’s a win, win, win that would benefit the employee, screw the employer and customers.
Everybody, all together now...
DUH!!
Well, since they’ve legislated a way that they can’t possibly lose any elections there will never be another Reagan type elected here. It’s the democrat’s version of “democracy” that they’re always whining about, and it only means that they can’t lose.
Easy enough to do a search:
$20 per hour
The minimum wage for fast food workers in California will be $20 per hour starting in April 2025. This increase is part of legislation AB 1228, which applies to employees in national fast food chains
So was mine... Full time at a car wash when I was 15 for 50 cents an hour.
Libs are really good at solving imaginary problems. Their solutions always cause real disasters.
When I was on the campus of Long Beach State University yesterday, I saw a vending machine from which you could order full meals, including breakfast burritos, Korean-style beef and rice bowls, etc. Type in your order, put your credit card in the slot, and in a few minutes, out comes your meal. No cooks, cashiers or bus boys needed. This could be the future of fast food.
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