California fast food workers will be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in the state will have among the highest minimum wages in the country, according to data compiled by the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers is at $15.50 per hour and is already among the highest in the nation.
Newsom’s signature on Thursday reflects the power and influence of labor unions in the nation’s most populous state, which have worked to organize fast food workers in an attempt to improve their wages and working conditions.
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Here’s a (not so) funny anecdote: I went to Italy years ago and got McDonald’s equivalent of a double quarter pounder with cheese for shits and giggles. Dollar for euro, the price was about the same, if not a little cheaper, in Italy. Now couple that with the fact that Italians have access to healthcare, are paid a living wage, and have ample vacation pay.
These companies could pay their workers properly and provide benefits if they wanted to, they have the money. They don’t because fuck you
But did you ever stop to think about how Italy’s system impacts the most important among us: the wealthy shareholders? A truly humane system would prioritize them at all costs.
/s (should be obvious, but I’ll put it there to be safe.)
Yeah when you think about how many meals they sell in an hour, they probably only need to charge less than 20 cents more for a meal to cover the cost of employees having a livable wage.
If were charging more for your burger in Italy, the difference in price was small enough to be unnoticeable. Because when you do the math, employees wages at a fast food joint isn’t a significant percentage of the price.
They still monkey around the hours in these places to avoid paying any employee too much. I’ve worked in similar industries and you have to fight for shifts, or deal with taking shifts last minute on your days off.
This is also anecdotal but I’ve met a lot of Italians where I now live and they all say pay and working conditions in Italy are poopoo. I suppose it’s all relative though.
Immigrants usually say that.
But central and southern Italy is like in a perpetuate state of Alabama.
yee-a haw
I’ve no idea what that means but I’m sure it’s nice?
PA over here still having to eat human feces for lunch since minimum wage is still $7.50
In CA we’d have to pay $20 for those feces lol.
Food here is no higher than the rest of the country We produce a ton of food. Housing and gasoline are the real expenses.
You’re right, but I know for a fact I could pick up groceries in Yuma (AZ) for a fraction of the cost in CA, because I do.
If you’re driving over to get groceries from Yuma, then you gotta be living in the middle of the desert.
It’s all desert or chaparral. Doesn’t make it cheaper. It just gets more expensive as you get to the coast. We’re talking about Socal right? I live in semi well populated city, more on the chaparral side.
that doesn’t even buy top shelf fresh organic shit
only preprocessed canned shit shipped from who knows where.
Vote.
Beat me to it
Money is literally worth half of what it was when I graduated high school in the 90s. My senior year I worked as a grocery clerk and made $9.50/hr while in a small city in Oregon (not expensive California). Math works out for me.
Well, there’s this, and this to say you’re right. Had the minimum wage tracked in line with production, it would be ~$26 today. If it had tracked in line with inflation, it would probably be closer to $21.45.
That it’s been flatlined for so long means people working for minimum wage have been getting steady pay cuts for 50 years.
It also happens that this is one of the reasons social security is straining financially- they were able to predict the demographic bulge of the baby boomers well enough, but they weren’t able to predict that wages would be constrained in the way they have been- and wages are the basis for Social Security’s funding.
Go after those who caused the increased cost of living not employees who are simply trying to survive because of it.
rents have probably doubled in the last decade, absurd to think that wages wouldn’t need to go up. Groceries in the last year as well. COVID was clearly a cover to gouge.
I wonder if McD’s “automated” franchises are the preemptive move by the company expecting more of this to happen. The writing was on the wall and they moved to compensate. They make a big deal of it like it’s some cool thing, but IRL they’re just reducing human overhead.
Businesses are always seeking to replace people with not-people in every way they possibly can so I don’t think you can really draw a cause and effect here.
Brazil have a shit minimum wage and McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants are full with automated cash registries and self service.
They will absolutely replace all the workers with robots the second they can, even at 5.00/hr wages for workers.
Might as well bleed them until then.
That’s always the idle threat, but the reality is that they likely don’t want to invest in the machines anyway.
I think a more likely phenomenon is that some (likely smaller) chains will be like “fuck it” and close up shop in CA.
Or the most likely scenario is that they just pad the prices a little more in CA and keep the chains open.
Long term I think people will just adjust to it and it’ll be normal. Chains that are looking to maintain their “value” positioning will just absorb it out of their profit margins like they do in other localities.
Looking at it from a business perspective, you want to weigh the costs so you automate as much as is economical to reduce to as few unskilled people as possible. A minimum wage person is now about $45k a year in salary and support costs, so if a machine costs $40k a year and removes a worker, you are money ahead.
absorb it out of their profit margins
You’re joking right? this is a satirical post. i mean, it has to be right?
The “automated” stores are less about reduction in labor cost and more about improving the overall operation and growing sales (thus increasing jobs.) It does help labor cost because the labor that is staffed is more efficient, but that’s more of a tertiary outcome. They still employ roughly the same number of staff, and potentially will employ even more as efficiency of the process grows.
Simplest way I can explain this is thinking about the order kiosks. One of the worst parts of fast food is that most people aren’t actually trained at birth how to order right, and secondarily it introduces another couple of humans who are fallible and won’t get it correct. EG: customer comes into McDonald’s and says “I want the whopper basket.” Crew person, internal: “wtf are they talking about, I guess I’ll give them a big mac.” Then the customer comes back pissed off because they actually wanted a quarter pounder with fries, it has to be remade distracting the kitchen, manager, that crew person, etc further.
Also, the entire time the customer is ordering, it’s engaging a whole crew person. To scale up and take more orders, you have to add an additional crew person for each order you want to take concurrently, and because customer flow is not 100% predictable, this isn’t even really possible. Most McDonalds have like 4 kiosks, and you’ll only find that they’re all used at the same time for maybe a grand total 3-4 hours a day. To replicate that with a human, you would have to be like “I need you to work from 7:23-7:59, and you to work 11:46-12:07, and you to work, 12:03-12:07…” which literally no one is going to do, and isn’t actually that predictable regardless. No automation means some customers are going to come in, see a line, and peace out. This means lower sales, and lower overall employees.
With automation, the demand can be filled much more often and a whole massive point of complexity is removed. In the example above, the customer comes in wanting a whopper basket, looks at the menu and goes “oh they call it a quarter pounder here” and clicks the buttons. Because they can now capture more demand, kitchens are busier and there are more orders to deliver, so they move that person who was going to be extremely inefficient by comparison serving customers 1:1, and move them to a kitchen position or to an expo position.)
Found the robot sales person
read the post and reply like a person.
You lost all credibility when you said it was “less about the costs”
I recently hired a mid -level manager from McDs strategy team and it’s at least 90% about cost reduction. They’re watching the adoption curve, because older and urban demographics still mostly order at the counter and refuse to use the self ordering lines. That’s why they offer free fries and free upgrades at select locations for using self ordering to force the greater adoption.
Also they’ve started reducing headcount in locations where adoption is higher, but still limit hours to hourly workers.
It’s all right there if you want to believe it, but good luck with the spin.
Wouldn’t kitchens be the next point of automation?
I mean, they’re definitely working on it, but so far it’s tech that isn’t ready. also, it’s still a similar problem, at least for now. The thing I’ve heard about is automated french fry machines. Basically, a big fryer that places fries into the fryer, and then transfers them to the bagging station. From what I’ve heard, they’re very expensive and don’t work well. But the strategy there is more around improving human foibles - estimating the amount of fries needed for rushes more accurately, etc. The person is still there working the station, but assisted by tech. Also improving capacity. That one person that is supposed to be doing all of the things now has less to do, and so can focus on making sure orders of fries are ready to be bagged by expo people. This means they’re bottlenecked less often, can serve more customers, and thus hire more staff.
I mean, make no mistake, we’re headed towards a mostly automated future for these types of jobs, most likely. Tech will improve, get cheaper, etc. But this has been the way things have been for the last 20-30 years. Watch a drive through in most mcdonalds and they have a machine that makes drinks. Before that, having a machine that dispensed fries into the basket was a luxury. Even the grill being like a big panini press was an innovation. So far, this has all led to more jobs. In the case of fast food, just producing consistent results quickly has led to growth. I’d check out youtube or ticktok. I think McDonald’s even puts out a lot of videos these days showing what’s really happening in the kitchen. It’s a little bit fascinating.
I stopped reading when you said automation increases jobs. But cool story, bro.
You might want to check out, uh, history. It’s rife with “omg this new technology is scary and bad” like the cotton gin, or more recently, computers.
You might want to read a little deeper. Technology always removes jobs. People shift to new jobs. The unknown is if new jobs will exist or if we’re entirely post scarcity.
this is why, famously, there stopped being jobs with the introduction of the wheel.
But when will we finally be free of the pages upon pages of job listings for stable boys. Who will care for all the horses?!
The McD’s or BK’s I have visited with ordering computers and only one till, looks to have around the same number of staff, mostly they just stopped taking orders while packing them.
This is an awesome victory for fast food workers and unions. People constantly shit on the folks working in customer service and kitchen jobs, but they are often gruelling and unpleasant. The people there certainly deserve it more than the CEOs and shareholders exploiting them (I mean, I’m against the entire structure, but if we’re working within that structure, then ye .).
what was the mininum before?
So now that ca is at 20$. Why is tipping still a thing?
This is only for fast food workers, who generally don’t get tips.
Who tips fast food workers?
minimum of 20 locations nationwide
And then, when this predictably puts all the small time, local food joints out of business, the people that vote for these clowns will be complaining that big corporations control everything.
Can you guys even see 10 inches in front of your own nose?
Uh… no? It’s right there at the bottom:
The raise takes effect on April 1 and applies to workers at restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide
Small time, local food joints would not be required to raise wages above the current minimum. They’d actually be able to compete more.
What the heck are you smoking?
Smoking the usual “reactionary right-wing ignorance”
And they’re fucking addicted to it. Get your facts out of here.
Indeed - not saying I agree, but this is the main talking point from the fast food companies. It’s not fair they have to pay more when (sometimes) slightly smaller businesses do not.
OK I fat fingered 20 instead of 60. That’s even better for my argument. To get the good pay you have to work for a huge multinational. Who else has 60 locations in the US alone?
What are you smoking? You know there’s a labor market right? And companies compete for workers? Imagine you run a taco shack and every one of your employees is waiting for the minute there’s an opening across the street at taco bell, or the opening of the new burger king down the street. What do you do? High turnover and employee resentment or raise wages? If raising wages means going out of business you’re stuck.
And then small minded people like you will be in a thread in 2 years quoting statistics showing how big corporations are putting smaller ones out of business and taking over all the industries, even going so far as to blame corrupt politicians and corporate capture, conveniently forgetting that you cheered on the very corporate capture legislation that led to it.
idk personally I think if you can’t pay a living wage you don’t have a business model, you have a loophole of exploitive policy. Like, you’re saying all this and I’m hearing “but without slaves to pick my cotton I’ll go out of business!” good
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This is the fast food lobby’s main talking point. Personally, I don’t disagree. Decide a living wage, make that the bare minimum for everyone. The talking point however is that “my poor wittle small business can’t afford to pay people enough money to live please daddy let me continue the exploitation.”
This is what I knew you meant and very good points by the way.
They all just showed their own absolute ignorance about how an economy actually functions by their responses.
I would rather see the franchisees go under for a more limited impact to the economy overall (more inflation).
I literally don’t care if something is owned by a small or big business. The obsession of small businesses is absolutely stupid. I only care if prices are low and wages are high. If that means only “big businesses” can provide that because of economies of scale, than good for them, companies should be rewarded for doing that.
If “small businesses” want to compete they should provide equity, there’s literally nothing stopping that from happening.
There’s a local barber shop that I go to and in my province the min wage was increased 50% while the prices have climbed 80% since I started going to them. But guess what, there still the best price/service wise so I go to them. The chains cost more than double plus taxes. And a lot of the local neighboirhood goes to them.
The only business that complain about labour laws especially laws like this that put heavier burden on larger companies are poorly run companies.
I see good business treating people good so when things like this comes up it shows me that business people will always push against progress.
So you’re in favor of monopolization?
If it’s better for customers and workers what’s the problem (from a capitalist perspective)?
Do you want to punish success?
If small businesses become successful and grow do you want to purposefully stop them?
I always ask what is the difference between a small and big business and nobody gives a good answer.
Small business is always used as a shield to attack workers.
Genuinely, if they don’t offer a innovative product, what’s the point of “small business”? What’s the point of a “small business” barber/retail store/grocer/etc. besides better prices?
When does a “small business” become a “big business”? And should we stop that from happening?
It seems to me that “small business” is just entitled people. If those same people became a “big business” they would want to crush their competition (i.e. “small business”) look at Bill Gates/Steve Jobs against IBM.
The only thing that “small business” people want is for them to be the owner of a “big business”. That’s it.
If you actually care about distribution of ownership and wealth. You’d advocate for co-operatives, ESOPs and distributed ownership structures. Otherwise I don’t care.
The issue is that this inevitably leads to monopolization. When a large business is able to keep competitors out of the market, they eventually are able to raise prices without any competition which is drastically worse for consumers. There are many reasons why monopolies have historically been broken by the government and why the government should continue doing so. It’s not for anyone’s best interest other than the shareholders.
How did the big business become a big business?
I have literally seen a small business expand beyond my city and become regional over a couple decades. And probably will try to be national chains.
From a capitalist perspective. What’s bad about monopolization? For big businesses to be big business they need to have success. Why do you want to break success? Why do you want to pick winners and losers?
I don’t believe in any of that. I prefer distributed ownership and benefits.
If the consumers own their own stores through a consumer cooperative than they can set the prices for themselves. And hence don’t need “competition”. And since the shareholders would be the members (i.e. the consumers), in a consumer cooperative, then that means they’ll benefit. No need to have any billionaire tyrant either local nor from a big box store.
From a capitalist perspective, there’s nothing wrong with monopolization. The issue is with the capitalist perspective, itself.
I don’t believe in any of that. I prefer distributed ownership and benefits.
That’s good. I thought I was debating some free market psycho. I think we agree on this.
The raise takes effect on April 1 and applies to workers at restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide — with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread.
Where did you get 20? And does your point about minimum locations make sense with also bringing up local joints who are explicitly exempt given said minimum?
Edit: I see, are you saying that small businesses won’t be able to compete with this new wage minimum? Valid point there.
A business that can’t pay its employees a living wage isn’t a business
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Yeah the obvious solution to stop big businesses is removing all regulations. Once everyone is all getting paid below minimum wage, wages will magically go up and they’ll be better off.
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You’re worried about regulatory capture but you think it’s good sense to tie housing assistance to the employer?
Where did I say housing assistance was tied to an employer?
I look forward to everyone bitching about how much more food costs.
You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
Food already costs too much and it does partially because the government continues to pay farmers not to grow to get votes.
