Free Republic

California’s aggressive push for a $20 fast-food minimum wage was sold as a moral victory for workers, a bold stand against corporate greed that would lift families without consequence. Yet the reality unfolding at Carl’s Jr. locations across the state tells a different story—one of shuttered opportunities, fleeing staff, and franchise operators driven to bankruptcy. What began as political virtue-signaling has delivered economic pain that no amount of union rhetoric can disguise. Friendly Franchisees Corporation, a major operator running dozens of Carl’s Jr. restaurants, filed for Chapter 11 protection last month, citing the wage mandate as a primary driver of...

Iconic burger chain Carl’s Jr. is under increasing financial pressure from both California’s cost of doing business, $20 minimum wage rules and public safety issues that employees allege are spilling into the workplace. Carl’s Jr. has 588 stores in California as of 2025, but that number declined by 25 from 2023, when it had 613 stores in the state, according to internal franchise documents. Last month, a major franchisee filed for bankruptcy, affecting 11% of operations across the state. The doomed franchisee, Friendly Franchisees Corporation, last month explicitly blamed the state’s relatively new $20 minimum fast-food wage touted by the...

(The Center Square)—The Los Angeles City Council’s delay on a $30-an-hour minimum wage has some groups shaking their heads and others clapping their hands. The council last week voted to postpone implementation of the new minimum wage for hotel and airport workers. The vote was 9-6 and would move the timeline from 2028 to 2030. The vote came amid pressure from businesses threatening efforts to repeal the city’s gross receipts tax, which is a major source of revenue for Los Angeles. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has been quoted in various news reports as calling this a placeholder to keep talks...

The national wage floor is so low that it might as well not exist.Do you want to know the good news about the minimum wage? In most parts of the country, it is practically irrelevant. The last federal minimum wage increase went into effect on July 24, 2009, raising it from $6.55 an hour to $7.25. We have experienced nearly 50 percent inflation since then, yet the minimum wage has stayed the same. Even in 2009, only 4.9 percent of workers were actually paid $7.25 an hour, and that number has dropped to 1.1 percent today. This is good news:...

Orlando attorney says he won’t compete for Florida governorJohn Morgan took to social media on Monday to announce a new initiative: a $100,000 prize for a contest to name his new third party here in Florida. The Orlando attorney opened up his video statement by declaring he would not be running for office. “For about the last year and a half, a lot of people have been asking me to run for governor of the state of Florida. It’s really quite an honor,” he said. “So today, I’m going to answer that question and tell you my plans.” According...

Hotels in Los Angeles, California are struggling, a new report from industry researchers claimed in a new report. “Hotels are struggling to keep up with rising operating costs coupled with falling demand,” the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) researchers said last week. According to AHLA, the city’s minimum wage mandate and other policies led to increased “costs without flexibility to reflect market conditions and demand levels.” A phased-in minimum wage hike in Los Angeles mandated up to $30 per hour for airport and hotel workers. The law was signed into law last year by Mayor Karen Bass, mandating that...

Labor leaders, elected officials and community advocates gathered on the steps of City Hall on March 10 to launch the “$30 for Our City” campaign, backing legislation that would gradually raise New York City’s minimum wage to $30 an hour. The bill, introduced by Sandy Nurse, would nearly double the city’s current $17 hourly minimum and phase in the increase over several years, reaching $30 by 2030 for large employers. Supporters say the proposal is a response to the city’s worsening affordability crisis, arguing that wages have failed to keep pace with the cost of living. “Costs are up and...

A Year-and-a-Half Later, Commiefornia's Fast Food Minimum Wage Is an Unmitigated Disaster And the Democrats want this for ALL OF AMERICA!................ 2:51 VIDEO AT LINK.................

Ian Jaeger @IanJaeger29 $17 for a Burger King Whopper Meal in California. This is what happens when you make the minimum wage $20, Gavin Newsom. From Wall Street Apes 7:26 PM · Aug 30, 2025

Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics. The games were awarded to the city back in 2017 and since then it is preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of visitors. They city was already struggling a bit because of the deadly wildfires which destroyed significant portions of two neighborhoods in January.No one is suggesting that the Games be postponed or canceled in response to the fires. But there is rising concern that an already difficult endeavor for both Los Angeles, the main host city, and LA2028, the private committee in charge of raising most of the money...

Across Europe, the job market has been shifting, leading to an uncomfortable situation for the younger generation. Gen Z workers born between 1997 and 2012 enter jobs faster than any cohort before them, but they leave them faster and often not by choice. A recent study reveals that Gen Z employees are terminated at noticeably higher rates than older generations. However, a deeper and more systemic issue is breaking down between generations, expectations, and what is actually termed “professional” in 2025. And Europe is struggling with inflation, stagnant wages, and a post-pandemic reckoning that may be the perfect storm for...

When Los Angeles City Council members took up a plan to hike the wages of tourism workers this week, they received some carefully worded advice from city lawyers: Don’t vote on this yet.Senior Assistant City Atty. Michael J. Dundas advised them on Wednesday — deep into their meeting — that his office had not yet conducted a final legal review of the flurry of last-minute changes they requested earlier in the day.Dundas recommended that the council delay its vote for two days to comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.“We advise that the posted agenda...

Inflation poses severe challenges for emerging market economies. The latest example is in Peru, where social unrest spreads across the country, forcing the government to impose a curfew in the capital, Lima, on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “The cabinet has agreed to declare a ban on the mobility of citizens from 2 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. of Tuesday, April 5, to protect the fundamental rights of all people,” Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said in a live broadcast last night. The South American country was already struggling before commodity prices jumped to record highs because of the Ukraine invasion and virus...

New research published by Pepperdine University is attempting to settle the debate over whether boosting the minimum wage for fast-food workers in California to $20 an hour has cost jobs. The study, released on April 1 to coincide with the one-year anniversary of AB 1228, cites recent data from the California Employment Development Department, showing a “significant” decline of over 23,100 jobs. At the same time, fast-food employment grew by 0.8% nationwide, researchers said. The other outcome is that customers are paying more for their burgers, chicken strips, French fries and tacos than before. Many fast-food chains began raising prices...

@JohnStossel @SenSanders say America should become more like Sweden. I agree. Sweden has a private pension system, school vouchers, and no minimum wage law Clip...

(CNN) -- In her race to defeat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes has barnstormed Kentucky, talking up her support for raising the minimum wage and criticizing the GOP's so-called war on women. But the restaurant owned by Grimes' family doesn't always practice what she preaches, and Kentucky Republicans have been happy to point that out. .... But minimum wage isn't the only issue dogging Grimes' family business. Hugh Jass Burgers -- say it out loud to get the joke -- has menu items like "Charlotte's Rack, sure to be voted biggest rack" named after Grimes' mom and...

The number of restaurants in the Emerald City could drop by up to 8% this year.. Seattle’s new $20 minimum wage for 2025 has caused a 6th restaurant to close since the new year. Pike Place Market bakery The Confectional closed on Sunday after 18 years in business. ... Owner Destiny Sund told KIRO News Radio, “I wanted my team to have a wonderful holiday season, so I didn’t mention to them that we would be closing until after New Year’s Day. So this has been a long week for all of us at The Confectional.” The minimum wage for...

The owner of a popular waffle shop in West Seattle said she had no choice but to shut down her business after the city’s new minimum wage law went into effect on New Year’s Day — hiking hourly pay to $20.76. Bebop Waffle Shop, which was founded by a former New York City resident more than a decade ago, closed its doors for good on Monday. “I’ve cried every day,” Corina Luckenbach, the waffle shop owner, told Fox 13 TV. Luckenbach, who founded Bebop more than 10 years ago after relocating from New York to the Emerald City, said that...

A host of new laws went into effect in California Wednesday, including a statewide minimum wage boost to $16.50 an hour. While that’s the new floor for hourly pay, many Bay Area cities have set their own mandatory wage rates that are above the state minimum — and workers in some of those cities will see their own bump in pay come Jan. 1. This means that a raise could now be just a town away. According to the Bay Area Labor Center, some 25 local cities raised their minimum wages this year. Interestingly, a number of those cities sit...

Businesses are already shutting down over the new law. Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state celebrated the passage of a massive minimum-wage hike in the city of Seattle, but many on social media responded with ridicule and mockery. The far-left government in Seattle jacked up the minimum wage on all businesses beginning the first of January. Some businesses are already shutting down after calculating that the law would force them into insolvency. 'Leftists are blocking opportunity. Again. It's what you authoritarian thugs do best.' "Yesterday, Seattle’s minimum wage officially rose to $20.76 per hour — one of the highest...