California now requires fast food companies to pay their employees $20 per hour as a minimum wage.
Note: The law does not raise the minimum wage in California, which is $15.50. It strictly targets the fast-food industry.
The law also creates a Fast Food Council that can continue to increase wages each year through 2029 by 3.5%, or the change in averages for the U.S. Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower.
Of course, those increases will likely just be subsumed by the inflation raising minimum wages always brings. It'll wind up being just another case of Californian politicians keeping the poor in their place by making their money worthless.
We all know the fast-food restaurants will have to come up with that money somewhere and end up raising prices across the board.
And that's crazy because California already boasts the the highest fast food prices in the nation.
A burger, fries, and a drink combo at a fast food restaurant cost upwards of $15 in California in 2022, and that was when minimum wage was $15.50 per hour, so you can imagine how much those prices are going to increase to cover $20 per hour.
But it's not all bad news.
It is making another kind of labor look affordable by comparison.
Can you imagine a California where most of the population sleeps on the streets, while the wealthy are served by robots inside?
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