Good day all. This story came out over a month ago, but other things have come up that pushed this to the bottom of my to do list. For years, the morons running Kalifornistan have been jacking up the minimum wage for workers to flat out unsustainable levels. The last increase was to $20/hour and went into effect in 2024.
The result of this increase was to show what the true minimum wage is. That is $0.00. Because of the forced increase, many restaurants, (Usually fast food), and other small businesses couldn’t afford the increase so they laid workers off and didn’t hire others. Now a study has been released showing how bad this was. Here are the details from Fox News:
A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) this month found that California’s 2023 minimum wage hike cost the state thousands of jobs.
Researchers found that the state’s $20 minimum wage fast food hike has cost the fast-food sector 18,000 jobs since it went into effect in April 2024, representing a 3.2% decline in that sector compared to fast-food sectors in other parts of the country.
Personally, I think this is on the low side. It wasn’t just fast food jobs that were cut, but there were a number of others that were cut in other industries. The reason was simple. The jobs weren’t worth the $20/an hour businesses were being forced to pay. It also doesn’t include the other costs such as unemployment and any benefits that a business has to pay. That $20/hour can actually shoot up to $40+ per hour.
The California assembly passed AB 1228 in Sept. 2023, which established the state’s “Fast Food Council” and its ability to set and adjust the sector’s minimum wage.
Ah, I see. This was strictly for the Fast Food sector. My error. However, my comments on the real costs stand. Besides jobs lost, there have been businesses that just gave up and closed their door.
Additionally, the bill, signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom the following April, established a new minimum wage for fast food workers, which was previously $16 an hour.
“The hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees shall be twenty dollars ($20) per hour, effective April 1, 2024. Thereafter, the council may establish, pursuant to this subdivision, minimum wages for fast food restaurant employees that take effect on an annual basis, beginning on January 1, 2025,” text of the bill read.
As I recall, the fast food industry warned the Progressive Socialist moonbats about what would happen, but since none of those idiots in Sacramento have ever have ever run a business, or in most cases, ever worked in the dreaded private sector, they didn’t care. As far as they are concerned, business exist only to employ potential Democrat voters.
The research found that in the year since the bill went into law, California’s fast food employment contracted while fast food employment around the country expanded.
“Following AB 1228’s enactment, employment in the fast food sector in California fell substantially, with estimates ranging from 2.3 to 3.9 percent across specifications, even as employment in other sectors of the California economy tracked national trends,” the researchers stated, noting that employment in the same sector increased by around “0.10 percent” around the country.
For many places, they are moving to kiosks instead of having someone behind the counter to take your order. You would walk up to the counter, or use an app on your phone, punch in your order and then walk up, someone would bring it out and hand it to you. The only people working would be those making the food. This is the problem with government forced increases in wages. If it’s cheaper to replace a person with a computer or a robot, they will be replaced.
Newsom’s deputy director of communications Tara Gallegos disputed the findings of the piece, pointing out to Fox News Digital that the research paper was linked to the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank she claimed has published “false or misleading information” about California’s minimum wage hike “that later had to be completely retracted.”
Additionally, the Newsom staffer cited a study from a UC Berkeley professor on the $20 wage hike from February, and pointed out several of its findings.
“Workers covered by the policy saw wage increases of 8 to 9%, with no negative wage or employment effects on non-covered workers, she said, adding there were “No negative effects on fast-food employment” and that “The number of fast-food establishments grew faster in California than in the rest of the U.S.”
Please excuse me if I don’t believe a word you said. Thanks to Kalifornistan’s anti-business environment, fast food restaurants find it very difficult to open and many fail in short order. Those that raised prices found that their customers just couldn’t afford to eat there any longer.
The minimum wage laws in the United States were first implemented at the state level, usually in response to quite literal abuse by business owners towards their employees. The first National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1938 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also used the term “Living Wage,” when he started pushing it.
This was started due to the Great Depression, and as anyone who actually studies how FDR’s programs actually worked out, it really didn’t help things and generally made things a lot worse. In any case, in a few years Imperial Japan made the traditional fatal mistake of messing with America’s boats at Pearl Harbor and the United States economy went on to a full total war footing.
For decades, minimum wage jobs were always considered to be starter jobs for kids in school. They earned some money, they learned how to do a job and then they moved on to better jobs that actually paid a lot better. You also had people who took minimum wage jobs as a second job to earn some extra money. They were never intended to be jobs people could live on.
The the Communists Democrats decided that jacking the minimum wage up to unsustainable levels was a great way to secure votes from 18 year old’s who were just starting out and didn’t know anything. The idea was “Hey! The Democrats got me better pay! I’ll vote for them!” Now they are finding out the other side of the equation. Their jobs just aren’t worth that level of salary. Now their minimum wage is zero. The good news is these kids are figuring out that the Democrats are using them and selling them a bill of goods. Hopefully, enough will learn and vote to remove the Democrats from office across the board in Kalifornistan. Sadly, I’m not to hopeful on that.
Thatisall
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