California’s fast-food minimum wage hike keeps hurting workers

If your wages per hour increase, and your hours worked say the same, you get more money. But, if your hours are decreased, you do not benefit from that pay raise. California still hasn’t quite figured out that equation.

California jacked up the fast food minimum wage to $20 an hour and left the door open to increase it more over the next several years. The move has already led several fast-food restaurants and chains to let go of workers who will not see the law’s benefits, given that they are, you know, unemployed. Several restaurants and chains have also increased prices, meaning the wage increase for workers who actually stay employed won’t go as far given that the law is fueling more inflation in the state.

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There is one more effect, though, that is also harming workers. Major chains up and down the state are also cutting back hours for employees to counteract the increased costs. That means that many workers are now effectively making the same as, or a similar amount to, what they were previously, but now things in California will cost more as inflation runs through the fast food industry and leaks into others — that is if those workers weren’t already fired to save costs.

This is how minimum wage hikes backfire, especially when the hikes are as steep as they were in California. Rather than focus on bringing down the cost of living, California Democrats thought they could cheat the laws of economics, and instead, they are making people’s lives worse yet again.