Posts tagged $20 per hour
Opinion | California’s $25-an-Hour Minimum-Wage Boomerang
May 30, 2024 // The state’s budget deficit has ballooned to $45 billion. Mr. Newsom projects that the new healthcare minimum wage would cost the state $4 billion more a year owing to higher Medicaid costs and compensation for workers at state-owned facilities. Legislative analyses warned about these costs, but Mr. Newsom signed the law anyway. Thus the minimum wage for healthcare workers is set to rise to between $18 and $23 an hour this Saturday, depending on the type and size of healthcare provider. California’s current minimum wage for all workers is $16 an hour. Nearly all workers at healthcare facilities including janitors will have to be paid at least $25 an hour by 2028. Democrats shrugged when healthcare providers warned that the wage mandate could force cuts to patient services. Who cares if Californians wait longer before being seen at the ER? But now Democrats worry that the state’s higher health costs could force bigger government spending cuts. Oh no. Californians may have to wait even longer for their bullet train to nowhere.
CA Follows $20 Min Wage With Bill To Limit Self-Checkout
May 15, 2024 // Proposed CA Senate Bill 1446 would “prohibit a grocery or retail drug establishment from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are met,” according to a proposed legislation summary. Some of those conditions: Checkouts are limited to 10 items or less At least one manual staffed checkout station is available Customers are prohibited from purchasing certain items An employee can only monitor up to two self-service stations Employee is relieved from all other duties while monitoring
A major Burger King franchisee in California says he can’t roll out order kiosks fast enough due to the state’s new $20 fast-food minimum wage
April 19, 2024 // "We can't move fast enough on this," Harsh Ghai told Business Insider in an interview in early April. "We have kiosks in probably about 25% of our restaurants today," he said. "However, the other 75% are going to have kiosks in the next probably 30 to 60 days." Ghai said he owns 180 fast-food restaurants in California, including about 140 Burger King locations and numerous Taco Bell and Popeyes restaurants. Ghai said that he was the largest Burger King franchisee on the West Coast, though BI was unable to independently verify this. "We are installing kiosks in every single restaurant," he said.
California restaurant owner fears $20 wage hike will put him out of business: ‘Increase prices or close’
April 17, 2024 // After hustling to keep his doors open throughout the pandemic, a Los Angles restaurant owner is speaking out against the state’s newly enacted $20 minimum wage law, fearing it could be the final straw that puts him and his employees out of business. Justin Foronda, the owner of HiFi Kitchen in Filipinotown ,a neighborhood in Los Angeles, has spent the last several years enacting new and creative ideas to keep his restaurant afloat, navigating an industry devastated by widespread closures during the pandemic. An LA Times column released on Saturday titled, "Small-business owners brace for uncertainty as the $20 hourly fast-food wage takes effect," details Foronda's plight as he and other restaurant owners say they're suffering at the hands of the state’s newly enacted $20 minimum wage.
Opinion: California’s Bad April Fools Joke: $20 Minimum Wage For Flipping Burgers
April 7, 2024 // Friedman reminded us that fast food jobs don’t require much training, and used to be a traditional training ground for the unskilled. But not any longer thanks to the minimum wage laws. And every increase in the minimum wage hurts the low paid and the unskilled the most. Any economist could have predicted, and Milton Friedman warned us so many years ago, fast food businesses are going to have to downsize their workforce, reduce employee hours, raise prices and automate more… all because Gavin Newsom and California’s Democrat lawmakers meddle in the private sector. As Friedman famously said, “The rise in the legal minimum-wage rate is a monument to the power of superficial thinking.”
CALIFORNIA: Dave’s Hot Chicken tests kiosks, bigger drinks in face of $20 CA wage
April 3, 2024 // “We didn’t see the ability to pull labor out of the restaurant, but we did see some positive impact on sales,” Bitticks said. Dave’s labor deployment at the cash register — the position most likely to be replaced by kiosks — is already fairly small. The brand still needs workers present to assist customers with kiosks, in the same way grocery stores deploy workers to oversee the self-checkout process, he said. Tickets placed at kiosks are about 7% to 8% higher than orders placed with an employee, Bitticks said. This increase is driven by greater orders of the brands’ entrees, and possibly by guests trying new items they notice on their own, rather than trying items based on conscious upselling. Dave’s managers report customers across age demographics are using the kiosks, Bitticks said, rather than just younger diners.
SEIU, allies say $20 fast food wage should have minimal impact on employment
April 3, 2024 // “Our fight was never just about the raise, but having the power to improve our industry,” said Angelica Hernandez, a Los Angeles McDonald’s worker and member of the Fast Food Council created by AB 1228. Hernandez, speaking through an interpreter at a press event hosted by the Service Employees International Union and the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal American think tank, said employers are retaliating against supporters of AB 1228.
TV Commercial Slams SEIU for $20 Minimum Wage Hike
April 1, 2024 // The SEIU was behind the bill that created the California Fast Food Council as well as the new $20 wage—a hike that continues to be championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom despite fierce opposition from impacted workers, employers, and economists. The California Fast Workers Union is based in Washington, D.C., not California; it’s not a legal labor union and can’t bargain with employers; and it represents far less than one percent of the state’s fast food workforce. For more on CUF’s take on the SEIU’s fake union, read our recent OC Register op-ed here. A CUF survey of California restaurant workers released in March found that the workforce isn’t aligned with the SEIU’s agenda. We asked restaurant workers what they thought of the $20 wage hike and its potential consequences.
Bay Area fast food chains continue layoffs ahead of minimum wage increase
April 1, 2024 // Bay Area-based Vitality Bowls franchise owner Brian Hom, who owns two Vitality Bowls in San Jose, told the Wall Street Journal that his crew at the two locations had reduced from four to two employees, adding that he anticipated raising prices by 10% to alleviate labor cost. Hom also told the Wall Street Journal that any expansion plans would likely occur outside of California. "We’ve taken significant measures to optimize profitability as increased costs have arisen," a spokesperson for Vitality Bowls told SFGATE. "This includes menu innovations, tech stack advancements, and several other franchisee support programs.
Ice cream chain franchisee raises new questions about California’s fast-food labor law
March 31, 2024 // Assemblyman Chris Holden has not responded to a request for comment. A spokesman for SEIU California referred KCRA 3 to the California Labor Commission. No state leader involved or member of SEIU has responded to KCRA 3's question if they intended to include ice cream shops in the new law. "California’s landmark law raising wages for over 500,000 workers will result in urgently needed relief for working families on April 1, when the wage increase takes effect," the SEIU California spokesman said in a statement. The SEIU has previously said KCRA 3's reporting on its use of nondisclosure agreements is a "nothingburger." "Entities who will determine who will be subject to the law include the labor commissioner's office, the fast-food council, and potentially the courts," said Alex Stack, a spokesman for Gov. Newsom, told KCRA. Campbell told KCRA 3 she has hired a lobbyist and attorneys. When asked if she's considering taking legal action she said, "I think everything is on the table."