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California fast food workers stunned as restaurant closes without warning over $20 minimum wage: ‘Only the beginning’
New York Post ^ | April 4, 2024 | Kristen Altus

Posted on 04/05/2024 5:19:47 AM PDT by george76

Another California small business and its workers have seemingly suffered at the hands of the state’s newly enacted $20 minimum wage.

...

When making their way to work Monday morning, Navarro and her team learned upon arrival that the restaurant owner had made the decision to close its doors for good.

The owner, Loren Wright, told local Fox affiliate KMPH that this was the “last thing” they wanted to do, but knew by Friday night the business likely wouldn’t be able to absorb the wage hike and didn’t “want to ruin their Easter Sunday.”

The new California statewide legislation went into effect Monday and enforces a $20 minimum wage for restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide, except those that make and sell their own bread.

...

“I can see their intentions with increasing the minimum wage, thinking that it will attract more people,” the ex-manager added, “but I honestly don’t think it will work. This is not the first business that’s closing. There’s already a few local businesses for me that are closing, so I feel like this is just only the beginning.”

Speaking on behalf of the now unemployed Fosters Freeze team, Navarro claimed they would have preferred working at a lower hourly rate than being laid off.

“From the people that I spoke to, my employees, we would have rather stayed at the wage that we did have before, just because now we don’t have a job,” Navarro said. “And those who are still working in the areas around us that went up to $20 an hour, they got their hours severely cut. And it’s a lot less people working on shifts. So their jobs got a lot more difficult.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: business; california; lemoore; minimumwage; smallbusiness
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To: central_va

There is a floor on wages. Things could be worse.

Taco Food trucks on a couple of corners can do an all cash business for an Hispanic community and pay $10 an hour cash. For real. Or do farm delivery routes out of the back of minivans. For real.

All cash.


181 posted on 04/05/2024 10:31:08 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: drSteve78

Good post.

If you visit NYC it is amazing how many quasi-legal or illegal businesses flourish.

The black market is a critical part of the retail economy.

Illegal goods are sold, illegal wages are paid.


182 posted on 04/05/2024 10:34:45 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: Responsibility2nd
If the owner closes up shop then there are 3 possibilities.
  1. He just walks away. Bad credit to follow and all that entails
  2. Bankrupcy
  3. Sells business.

So without details, this is impossible to assess.

183 posted on 04/05/2024 10:36:12 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: ridesthemiles

I always loved all the variations of that joke.


184 posted on 04/05/2024 10:36:15 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (A person who seeks the truth with a closed mind will never find it. He will only confirm his bias.)
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To: McGavin999
Sooner or later you raise your prices and the people who used to buy from you 5 days a week can’t afford you so they only come 2 times a week.

Did those people stop eating?

185 posted on 04/05/2024 10:37:56 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: cgbg

There is only one business where labor is 100% of expenses. The “oldest” profession.


186 posted on 04/05/2024 10:40:06 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

Your lack of business experience is showing.

There are many more alternatives—and a wide variation of “walking away” without declaring bankruptcy.

The owner can negotiate with creditors one at a time—just one example.

The business can declare bankruptcy—and depending on the type of ownership that may not affect the personal credit of the individual.

Small business attorneys are experts in laying out a wide variety of options.


187 posted on 04/05/2024 10:40:37 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: central_va

So without details, this is impossible to assess.

Every business that loses money, EVERY ONE, will eventually run out of money and close. It’s the difference between being Busy and Good Business.

If you’re a lottery winner, and give money away, eventually you’ll be out of money. Every. Time.


188 posted on 04/05/2024 10:41:17 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: drSteve78

Define “close”.


189 posted on 04/05/2024 10:42:17 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

There is only one business where labor is 100% of expenses. The “oldest” profession

Actually, WRONG. Need a location, some bathroom facilities, some manner of hygiene, food and water. All hidden costs.


190 posted on 04/05/2024 10:44:24 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: central_va

As in, Not in Business.


191 posted on 04/05/2024 10:45:19 AM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: BobL; Telepathic Intruder

Enmity with fast food is a leftist thing, but it isn’t central to this.

What’s central to this is the leftist push to make ANY job a “living wage” job; to utterly ERASE from society every last vestige of the low-skill, modest-paid, entry-level jobs kids used to get while they were in High School or college, and still living at home.

The push eliminates a longstanding economic stepping stone that existed as a beneficial symbiosis of small businesses, and younger, less skilled people seeking a means of earning an income.

One does not eliminate stepping stones unless one is bent on making the waterway impassable except by some bridge. Find the bridge, discover who controls it, and what the toll is to cross over, and there you will find the miscreants behind all of this.

HATE their deeds with your might. God assuredly does.


192 posted on 04/05/2024 10:46:12 AM PDT by HKMk23 (https://youtu.be/LTseTg48568)
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To: 4Runner
stop blaming the workers....its the rats on top that come up with these schemes...they are schemes to make them look like they really care about the little people but what they do jusst destroys the little people....

at least at a restaurant you get tips...sometimes the tips are the best part of working...

193 posted on 04/05/2024 10:49:23 AM PDT by cherry
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To: dinodino

>>>No, you’re wrong. If the big chains are required to pay $20/hour, >>>>

At $20/hour the big chains are going to lay off and or raise prices. The local burger joint will actually see more workers available. Your scenario makes it look like wage control works. It doesn’t.


194 posted on 04/05/2024 11:01:33 AM PDT by vespa300
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To: drSteve78
Actually, WRONG. Need a location, some bathroom facilities, some manner of hygiene, food and water. All hidden costs.

I wouldn't know.

195 posted on 04/05/2024 11:10:21 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: vespa300

My point was that this will wreak havoc on all businesses, not just fast food.


196 posted on 04/05/2024 11:16:46 AM PDT by dinodino ( Cut it down anyway. )
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To: george76

This is the idiotic type of tabloid story that I detest.

We’ll see how the minimum wage story plays out, but the lazy news media has a way of blowing up one anecdote into a huge trend. For all we know, the restaurant that closed could’ve been bleeding losses for months, but the owners chose this moment as an excuse for their failure. And to close the first day of the change is suspicious.

I’m not denying that the increased wage could have a terrible impact on California business, but taking one restaurant out of almost 68,000 in the state is just a plain silly way of establishing a trend.


197 posted on 04/05/2024 11:53:41 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
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To: central_va

Which i think was the point of other FReepers on this thread.

Let’s just leave it at that. Slainte.


198 posted on 04/05/2024 12:03:42 PM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: central_va

No, the bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a paper bag. People don’t have to eat out, it was a cheap and fast option, when it stops being cheap people turn to other options.


199 posted on 04/05/2024 12:05:27 PM PDT by McGavin999 ( A sense of humor is a sign of intelligence, leftists have no sense of humor, therefore……)
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To: MAGA2017

yep, no matter how many stupid liberal policies that are forced upon Kalifornian, they stupidly vote democrat.


200 posted on 04/05/2024 12:38:04 PM PDT by BigFreakinToad (Remember the Biden Kitchen Fire of 2004)
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