{"id":2212414,"date":"2024-04-03T16:26:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-triggers-bloodbath-by-raising-minimum-wage-to-20-an-hour\/"},"modified":"2024-04-03T16:26:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:26:38","slug":"california-triggers-bloodbath-by-raising-minimum-wage-to-20-an-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-triggers-bloodbath-by-raising-minimum-wage-to-20-an-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s Decision to Increase Minimum Wage Sparks Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornia-triggers-bloodbath-by-raising-minimum-wage-to-20-an-hour%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2212414&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text discusses California&#8217;s significant minimum wage increase and its repercussions, including mass layoffs\u2062 and price hikes in\u200d fast-food chains.\u2062 It highlights how the hike has led to adverse effects \u2064in the economy, presenting different perspectives and shedding light on concerns regarding the sustainability of such actions. The\u200c narrative underscores the potential implications \u2062of continued wage escalation beyond current levels.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For several years now, Democrats in the state of California have enjoyed all the perks of one-party rule. With supermajorities in the state assembly, they don\u2019t have to deal with an opposition party. They certainly don\u2019t need to provide any kind of transparency to the public. They\u2019re completely free to enact the Democratic Party\u2019s grand vision \u2014 just like the leaders of notorious utopias like Baltimore, Selma, Detroit, or Oakland. If states are the laboratories of democracy, then California is the laboratory of the Democratic Party. Whatever Democrats want, they get.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s why hundreds of thousands of people flee California every year and it\u2019s why a lot more are about to leave the state. California, without much discussion or debate, just raised its minimum wage for certain fast-food workers to $20 an hour. This is a 25% wage hike, up from $16 an hour. The law applies to chains with 60 or more locations in California, including franchises \u2014 many of which are family-owned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The totally foreseeable and inevitable followed, and a bunch of fast-food chains announced mass layoffs. Others started raising prices, and at least one restaurant so far has closed down completely. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those employees at Foster\u2019s Freeze went from $16 an hour to zero dollars an hour, thanks to the minimum wage hike which California declared a \u201cwin for workers.\u201d And they\u2019re not alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When this law was signed, two large Pizza Hut franchisees <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrn.com\/top-500-restaurants\/two-california-pizza-hut-franchisees-lay-delivery-workers-ahead-minimum-wage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">laid off<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  more than 1,200 delivery drivers. In San Jose, The Wall Street Journal reports that two small Vitality Bowls restaurants have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/hospitality\/california-restaurants-cut-jobs-as-fast-food-wages-set-to-rise-eb5ddaaa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">cut their workforce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  in half. Restaurants like Jack in the Box are \u201ctesting fryer robots and automated drink dispensers\u201d so they can fire more employees soon. Hours are being cut a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nd of course, prices are going up too, across the board. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Post <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/04\/02\/us-news\/californias-20-fast-food-wage-raises-prices-by-up-to-1-80\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, at one Los Angeles-area Burger King, prices for a Texas Double Whopper went from $15.09 on March 29 to $16.89 on April 1, once the law went into effect. That\u2019s an increase of nearly $2 for the same exact \u2014 already horrifically overpriced \u2014 food in just two days. The Big Fish meal went up by $4, from $7.49 to $11.49. That\u2019s the precise increase in hourly wage, passed directly onto customers. Several other menu items went up \u201canywhere from 25 cents to a dollar,\u201d the Post found. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From what I\u2019ve seen, some of the advocates of the minimum wage hike on social media have tried to dismiss the concerns over the price hikes by saying that 25 cents to a dollar isn\u2019t a very steep increase. But what they\u2019re ignoring is that, first of all, as a percentage of the overall price of the item, these hikes are already significant. And second, this law has been in effect for less than two days and this is what has happened only in that time frame. We can assume that prices will continue to go up.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/ep-1339-the-matt-walsh-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the many fast-food companies raising prices is the fried chicken restaurant Raising Cane\u2019s. The CEO of the company went on CNBC recently to talk about the impact of this legislation on his business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, based on everything you\u2019ve just read, you might assume that the CNBC anchor conducting the interview would have a dim view of this new legislation. After all, you\u2019d expect someone at a business-oriented network to understand that higher prices and fewer jobs are generally a bad thing. But here\u2019s how she frames her question:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The CEO doesn\u2019t really answer the question, probably because he\u2019s there for a nice PR opportunity and he doesn\u2019t get adversarial or maybe he wasn\u2019t paying attention. But it\u2019s an incredible question to ask in earnest, which she appears to be doing. If you give minimum wage workers a raise, but in the process make it more expensive for them to live and eat, you have not really given them a raise. You haven\u2019t made it easier for them to purchase more chicken fingers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is especially the case for the many workers who have already lost their jobs because of it, and the many more who will in the near future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The fact that this is apparently difficult to say out loud \u2014 even for the CEO of Raising Cane\u2019s \u2014 tells us a lot about how California got in this position. Very few people in the state seem to understand basic principles of economics \u2014 or at least, they don\u2019t want to talk about them. But the fast food workers themselves understand what\u2019s going on here. They realize that they didn\u2019t actually get a raise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here\u2019s an employee from Jack in the Box explaining a basic economic reality that the governor of her state doesn\u2019t seem to comprehend:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How does a fast-food worker understand the economics of this situation better than the CNBC anchors? Why is she raising issues that California politicians don\u2019t seem to understand? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever the answer is, this is getting to be a running theme in California.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A couple of years ago, California sent out millions of \u201cinflation relief checks,\u201d which accomplished <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/09\/30\/politics\/inflation-relief-checks\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nothing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  except making inflation even worse. But there was no opposition party that could block those checks, just like there\u2019s no opposition party to block this minimum wage increase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, in California, the labor unions <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/california-fast-food-law-panera-newsom-nda\/60117858\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">obtained<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  nondisclosure agreements during the negotiations for the minimum wage bill. So no one can talk about how exactly this bill came about. There\u2019s never going to be a full explanation for why Gavin Newsom\u2019s friend and donor at Panera Bread managed to secure an exemption for fast-food restaurants that make bread, for example. (Not that we really need an explanation for that. It\u2019s the kind of naked corruption that one-party states are well known for).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you don\u2019t need an insider\u2019s look into the legislative process to know how poorly conceived this law is. That\u2019s because, after the bill was passed, legislators went back and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/in-house-counsel\/california-airports-stadiums-now-exempted-under-fast-food-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">added<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  a bunch of other exemptions, including fast-food locations in airports and stadiums. That\u2019s how you know you\u2019re dealing with a very well-thought-out law \u2014 the legislators just go back and redo it a few weeks later. These are the people manipulating the economy in the most populated state in the country. They\u2019re doing it as haphazardly as you\u2019d expect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The truth is that raising the minimum wage (by 25%, which is obviously a very sizable hike) in the midst of inflation and a struggling economy is incredibly stupid. There\u2019s really no other word for it. It attempts an end-run around the actual problems facing Californians. Except, really, it\u2019s worse than that. They aren\u2019t just avoiding the problems, but actively making everything worse. They\u2019re trying to solve problems by creating more of the problems they\u2019re allegedly trying to solve. And they aren\u2019t done. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, some leaders in California think that $20 an hour is still too low. It\u2019s not even half of what they think the minimum should be. Here\u2019s Rep. Barbara Lee:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just do the math. Do the math, says the woman who apparently can\u2019t add two plus two. She wants to mandate six-figure incomes for the people who run the cash register at McDonald\u2019s. You notice that she was asked about the economic sustainability of such a plan and did not pretend to even address that concern. That\u2019s because it is, of course, not sustainable at all. $20 an hour isn\u2019t even sustainable. $20 an hour has already caused a bloodbath of layoffs and price hikes. $50 an hour would simply be the end of commerce in California, which means the end of California itself. So, on second thought, maybe her plan has some benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you notice what Lee said in that clip. She said that a family of four needs a six-figure income just to get by. That\u2019s not really true \u2014 you can get by on less, my family did at one time \u2014 but think about how that applies here. She\u2019s saying that minimum wage workers need a massive, mandatory raise because that\u2019s what\u2019s necessary for families of four to survive. This obviously implies that there are a lot of single-income households of four where the breadwinner makes minimum wage. But that\u2019s not generally the case, and this is really, perhaps, the most important point here. Minimum wage jobs are not meant to be careers. These are supposed to be jobs for teenagers working part-time while they finish high school. These aren\u2019t jobs that grown adults with kids and mortgages are supposed to be doing for years on end. So if you\u2019ve been working at a job for five or ten years and you still make minimum wage, there\u2019s obviously a serious problem \u2014 and it\u2019s not one a minimum wage hike can solve.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Personally, I want every minimum wage worker to get a hefty raise. But that can be achieved, and should be achieved, by earning a raise. It can also be achieved by getting some work experience under your belt and then finding a better job somewhere else. Minimum wage is supposed to be a stepping stone. Not a foundation to build your life on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s a bit like if lawmakers passed a law declaring that all tent manufacturers must make their tents big enough and sturdy enough that they can be lived in for six months at a time. But that\u2019s not what tents are supposed to be used for. That\u2019s not what a tent is. A tent is something you stay in for a few days at a time. Now, lawmakers in California might respond, \u201cNo that\u2019s not true. In our state lots of people live in tents for years. They set them up right on the sidewalk!\u201d Yes, but the problem there is not that the tents are insufficient homes. The problem is that those people are trying to turn tents into homes. The problem is with how the tent is being used. Minimum wage is like the tent of salaries. It\u2019s meant to be very temporary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The advantage of working a minimum wage job is that the bar is pretty low. Show up on time, look presentable, put in the effort, be reliable, be moderately competent, cover all the basics, and you\u2019ll be on the fast track to a better job \u2014 either at your current place of work or somewhere else. You don\u2019t need to wait around for the government to force your employer to give you a raise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I\u2019ve said plenty of times before, the best way for a minimum wage worker to make more money is to not be a minimum wage worker anymore. That\u2019s a basic truth that you won\u2019t hear from politicians like Barbara Lee. Instead they\u2019ll promise you the pie in the sky. The bad news is that they probably won\u2019t deliver on that promise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The worse news is that they might. And then everyone\u2019s problems will get much worse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In California, Democratic dominance has allowed unchecked rule for years. With supermajorities in the state assembly, transparency and opposition are scarce. This unfettered power lets them pursue the Democratic Party&#8217;s agenda without hindrance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":2212415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-2126120421.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-2126120421.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2212415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}