Last September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Fast Food Restaurant Industry Act, which raised the minimum wage for most fast-food workers to $20 per hour. Moreover, the new law “establishes a Fast Food Council … to establish an hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees and develop standards, rules, and regulations for the fast food industry.”
Unsurprisingly, this steep hike in the minimum wage for fast-food workers has already produced substantial downstream effects. According to the California Business and Industrial Alliance, there have been around 10,000 fast-food job layoffs in the Golden State since the Fast Food Restaurant Industry Act was signed into law.
The National Owners Association, an advocacy group for thousands of fast-food franchises in California, estimates the new law will cost fast-food restaurants in California about $250,000…
