Fast food franchisees confirm that they will be increasing menu prices to offset the staggering increase in labor costs due to California’s new $20 minimum wage for all fast food workers. However, the California legislature, in establishing California’s new fast food worker minimum wage, may have failed to deliver high wages to California fast food workers. If the menu prices increase significantly, the fast food workers may find that their higher wages do not significantly increase their buying power at their own workplace- and perhaps in other areas of their life. In addition, if fast food franchisees choose to go fully automated and not hire employees, there are no higher wages for these workers because there will be no wages at all.
Read MoreEmployers beware! California’s legislature has now created “selective” minimum wage for employees working in two industries- fast food and (now) healthcare. California’s current state minimum wage is set at $15.50 an hour and will increase to $16.00 an hour in January of 2024- a mere 50 cents! Just weeks after California enacted a new law to increase the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour, California enacted a second law to increase the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 an hour. This second law gives some healthcare workers a pay raise of $7.50 an hour in only 7 months!
Read MoreCalifornia has enacted a new law that creates a “selective” minimum wage by creating a minimum wage only for fast food workers. In the span of less than seven months, California fast food workers will receive a $4.50 per hour pay increase. In January of 2024, all other California employees working for minimum wage will receive a pay increase of a mere $0.50 per hour. Fast food employees are clearly receiving a windfall, and fast food employers will now be forced to deal with added rules, regulation, and oversight due to the creation of the fast food council.
Read MoreUPDATE: Governor Newsom recently vetoed California Senate Bill 799, which would have provided unemployment benefits to employees who were not laid off and, instead, were choosing to go on strike.
Read MoreCalifornia employers, beware! On October 4, 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 616 into law which requires employers to increase the number of mandatory paid sick days from 3 to 5 days. This new law will go into effect on January 1, 2024.
Read MoreCalifornia’s legislature hopes to expand unemployment benefits to illegal immigrants who are unemployed. If Senate Bill 227 passes, employers may be forced to pay higher taxes to cover the increase in unemployment benefits being paid out. The new bill increases the pool of “unemployment benefits” applicants, allows undocumented employees meet a lower threshold for obtaining “unemployment benefits, and actively ignores the propensity for fraud in these instances.
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