Starting Monday, most California fast-food workers will earn at least $20 an hour — the highest minimum wage across the U.S. restaurant industry. Yet the pay hike is sparking furious debate, with some restaurant owners warning of job losses and higher prices for customers, while labor advocates tout the benefits of higher wages.
The new law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last fall, takes effect on April 1, requiring that fast-food chains with at least 60 locations nationwide pay workers at least $20 an hour. The means the state’s 553,000 fast-food workers will earn more than the state’s $16 minimum wage for all other industries.
The new baseline wage comes as the fast-food industry is seeing booming earnings, with big chains like McDonald’s enjoying strong revenue growth and wider profit margins in recent years. That’s partly due to menu prices that have far outpaced inflation, with fast-food costs surging 47% over the past decade, compared with an average of 29% for all other prices, according to a new analysis from the Roosevelt Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
And the wild thing is that 20$/hr is not enough to live on for most people in most of California
Idk how anyone besides the wealthy survives in California. Someone sent me a job in my field starting at 150k in San Francisco. On paper, it would be really great money for what I do, but the cost of living would make it a poverty wage. I’m not interested in having 6 roommates at this point in my life.
100k w/four housemates is enough to eat, have fun, and save a wee bit in SF!
:) heh yeah wildly expensive. No accident the place is in high demand though 🌁🌉* And that’s in spite of parts of downtown feeling like they must be the fentanyl capital of the world. Western half of the city lives a different life than those stuck in e.g. the Tenderloin, very sad whether working class or homeless.
*emoji depict the Golden Gate Bridge at least on Apple devices
You should have taken it. You don’t need to live in SF. Plus lots of those jobs are work from home at least part of the time.
You can rent for a few years and then get a better job at a higher level. It’s worth it to set a new pay level that all other jobs have to beat.
I live in flyover country and I’m not sure that’s enough here anymore. My wife and I have been making over six figures (combined) for eight years now and things are a bit tight for our family of four.
One of our local stations news teams did a wage study and found that to “be able to live comfortably” a family of four needs to make $186,000.
In some parts of California, making less than $104k as a single person is considered low income.
$20 is not even a living wage for a family. And in California, that’s basically still a starvation wage. Better than nothing I guess. There should be a law along with this wage increase that prohibits these fuckers from
rasingraising their food prices.Luckily McDs is starting to feel the pinch from people forgoing their crap food for being too expensive. It would seem they’re starting to realize that people do have a limit on what they’ll spend on their “food”
Our government is so god damn weak. Corporations run this country with a jungle grip. Some people rag on Europe a lot, but they sure have much better governments than us by a long shot.
For now. All capitalism trends towards end stage. Reforms are just delay the inevitable, not prevent it entirely.
Think back to the 20th century labor movement. Could in your wildest dreams imagine such a movement occurring this day and age? But let’s just pretend everything goes perfect and we get a other similar labor movement right now. The best we can hope for is a temporary cease fire in the class war while the 1% works its way back into positions of power.
All the blood sweat and tears shed making the new deal were wasted. Flushed down the drain because they negotiated with financial terrorists. like trying to make peace with russia…
Capitalism always leads to the same dead end. Let’s try out something new. Maybe we haven’t even created the next way to live our lives yet? How could we find such a thing if we keep going around in a circle in this sarlac pit?
I went into McDonald’s a couple months ago on a rare craving whim. A Big Mac was almost $7.
If I’m going to pay $7 I’d rather go to Jack in the box or Carl’s Jr and get a better quality burger. I don’t see how the market allows them to get away with this. Who the fuck is paying this at McDonald’s?
Yeah the last couple of times I’ve been in a pinch and went through a fast food place for a basic burger value meal it was $11-$12, and I got the usual half-assed burger slopped together without the proper amount of toppings.
Bitches I can hop into a Cheddars and get a half pound monster that I can barely get into my mouth for $11.
Don’t give these assholes your money. Make your own food. That way you save a ton of money and not support these fuckers. Society will still thrive without shitdonald and the likes if they disappear.
Western Bacon Cheeseburger combo in the Los Angeles area now…
From Snopes, just thought it is relevant.
McDonald’s workers in Denmark truly make more than $20 an hour. It’s worth repeating, however, that these wages were not determined by the country’s minimum wage. In fact, Denmark does not have a nationwide minimum wage. Rather, the country has a robust union presence and issues such as wages and vacation time are often decided via collective bargaining.
Another point that is often raised when comparing McDonald’s wages in Denmark vs. the United States is how much these wages impact menu prices. While we can’t provide any exact figures here, we can say that the change in price isn’t extreme. A review by The New York Times, for instance, found that Big Macs cost “about 27 cents more on average in Denmark than in the United States.” But according to the “Big Mac Index” from the Economist, a Big Mac costs 76 cents less in “Denmark (US $4.90) than in the United States (US$5.66) at market exchange rates.”
I remember reading an article about strawberry pickers out here in California about 25 years ago. The math in the article said they could triple the pay of the pickers, and it would add a similar amount (around $0.20) per carton at retail. But we can’t do that for some fucking reason.
Just think… if all the produce we bought was 20 cents more at retail, we’d have to spend… well I don’t know exactly, but at least an additional $3. Can anyone afford that?!
That math is just a little lie that makes up a part of the Big Lie. The truth is that increasing workers’ wages does not tend to lead to price inflation in most markets. It simply reduces profits and C-level bonuses.
Funny how nobody ever talks about the labor cost of CEO pay driving up prices 🤔
Imagine not having to use illegal immigrants as an option yet you guys would rather pay $.20 less.
By “you guys” you mean the executives at Dole and Delmonte that would rather pocket the $0.20 per pint themselves than pay a fair wage, right?
My assumption is that it’s only $0.20 because the assumption is that the C-suite of whoever is selling the strawberries is expected to lower their profit margins.
And we know that’s never going to happen.
27 cents more for a Big Mac? That’s outrageous! I won’t pay it! Bring those guys back down to $7.25 an hour so I can save a quarter and two pennies when I buy fat and salt!
These numbers are meaningless without average household income figures.
“Hiking wages” is a hell of a spin, friend. Do you care to defend that position?
Maybe they should just try building some dense housing so the people making $20 got some where to live that’s not with 3 other people in a house built for 1
Can’t let good be the enemy of great
This will inevitably drive up the cost so high that Californians will be forced to survive entirely on Panera!
-conservatives, probably.
It won’t do shit since the starting pay is like $20-22 an hour even in the valley.
Unless your restaurant bakes fresh bread. Get ready for TacoBell’s new Doritos Loco Sourdough Baguette.Apparently this is bullshit. Although I would try dorito bread if someone made it.
If Panera doesn’t qualify as a bakery under this law – which it is widely reported that they don’t – Taco Bell certainly doesn’t. This whole meme is likely a right wing misinformation campaign.
Except for Panera who get a cut-out because the CEO is a childhood friend of Gavin Newsom. Like I’ve been saying for years: Democrats are just Republicans draped in a rainbow flag.
No they fucking aren’t.
I thought that got scratched out? Either way yes these shouldn’t have targeted exceptions that don’t pass the smell test.
It didn’t get scratched out. It was never true in the first place. I don’t know why the bakery exemption was in there – apparently no one who isn’t on a confidentiality agreement does – but Panera apparently never would’ve qualified as one under it. The disinfo game from the right on this was on point.
This is misinformation. Panera has to follow the law apparently.
You know you’re not supposed to stick the Q-tip all the way into your ear, right?
