Posted on 09/20/2023 6:22:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
The California legislature just passed a new bill to require all major fast-food chains throughout the state to pay their employees at least $20 per hour – and McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain with 40,100 stores worldwide, is really angry about it.
The passage of Assembly Bill 1228, which is now on its way to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk, "will result in a devastating financial blow to California McDonald's franchises at a projected annual cost of $250,000 per McDonald's restaurant," responded the National Owners Association to the bill's passage.
According to the legislators behind AB 1228, the bill only affects the "rich" fast-food places that have more than 60 locations nationwide. This is technically true, though it will likely inadvertently affect small fast-food chains or individual family-owned restaurants because employees will choose to apply and work at McDonald's for $20 an hour versus making far less at theirs.
"Small restaurants will be forced to raise their wages, too, just to get workers," is how one report put it.
(Related: The more minimum wage increases, the more businesses will try to replace them with artificial intelligence [AI] robots.)
California really wants fast-food chains to pay their employees higher wages Another thing AB 1228 does is create an entirely new government office comprised of a 10-member council that will govern the implementation and enforcement of its provisions.
In its first draft, AB 1228 would have allowed the California government to fine major corporations in the event that franchise operators in the state skirt or ignore the law. That provision was removed, but head corporations like McDonald's are still upset.
The new $20 minimum wage requirement is set to go into effect immediately, followed by even more increases to occur from 2025 through 2029.
Contention over the new legislation reached a fever pitch after the California legislature pushed through the FAST Act earlier this year, which is even worse for the state's restaurant industry.
"The bill was so egregious that the industry banded together and demanded changes as well as representation in the negotiations, instead of it being left to the rapacious unions and the left-wing legislature to craft the thing unbidden," one report explains.
The aim of the FAST Act is to increase California's minimum wage to $25 per hour, and there was a lot of fury after it was revealed that the campaign to pass it was, ironically, only paying canvassers $15 per hour.
After the FAST Act was passed, McDonald's U.S. President Joe Erlinger wrote a public letter calling it "lopsided" and "ill-considered." Erlinger further blasted California lawmakers for not treating all restaurants equally and instead only targeting national chains like McDonald's.
It turns out that the FAST Act is now on the chopping block with the strong possibility that it will be repealed and replaced, and waiting in the wings was AB 1228 to take its place.
The new AB 1228 requires that four members of the 10-member committee be representatives from the fast-food industry, as well as four union members. Previously, there were no such requirements that the fast-food industry be represented on the committee.
"I certainly wouldn't say it's catastrophic, and certainly not as bad as it could have played out over the next year or two," commented Mark Kalinowski, CEO of Kalinowski Equity Research.
At a time when the U.S. economy is already teetering on the edge, the passage of AB 1228, which is likely to be signed into law by Newsom, will only further accelerate the collapse of the system as we currently know it.
The latest news about the escalating economic crisis and what comes next as the fallout from it can be found at Collapse.news.
Well this is one way of shutting down Fast Food
Good job, California. Raise it by 20% every year.
Robots or Close down
Don’t worry. Pretty soon all restaurants will be Taco Bell...
There is an exclusion if you bake your own bread (Subway must have paid some politicians off pretty well ) .So McDonalds should just come out with fresh baked bread ( in CA only). Bake 5 loaves in the morning. Charge $20 a loaf. Of course they won’t sell any. Nothing in the bill says people have to purchase the bread.
There’s NO WAY you can support a family of 4-6 on a wage of $20 per hour. The minimum wage for fast food workers must be raised to at least $50.00 per hour! This is immoral. They need a living wage.
The “Automats” will make a comeback................
There isn’t $250k of profit to pull from in a McD restaurant.
Where I live McD’s pays $21.00 per hour.
Walmart $22.00.
Target $23.00.
All the above are beginning wages and this is in Montana...
The power to tax is the power to destroy and let us be honest minimum wage is a form of taxation.
As the hourly wage goes up the take for the government also goes up.
Legislature have a profound ignorance of how economies work. The end result of this will be the opposite of what they wish would occur.
Prediction that in a very short time there will be fewer workers in the fast food industry along with all the companies that support the industry.
Marginal stores will be closed and others will go full automation with a minimum crew.
“The California legislature just passed a new bill to require all major fast-food chains throughout the state to pay their employees at least $20 per hour.”
At $20.00 an hour, the McDonald’s worker in San Francisco will be living in a box along a Muni track and the McDonald’s worker in San Bernardino will be living large.
Big Macs just went up $10 bucks. TWENTY DOLLARS AN HOUR. I guess I was right when I said college diplomas are worthless these days. A college diploma isn’t going to get you 20 bucks an hour.
The result of this is very predictable - less jobs.
They won’t stop until the fast food industry in CA is driven out.
The Fast Food restaurant of the future will have one Employee and a one Dog.
The Dog will be there to make sure the Employee does not touch the machines.
The Employee will be there to feed the Dog..................
Guberment is probably thinking if employees make more money there would be more taxes to collect.
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