XPost: ca.politics, alt.politics.republicans, alt.food.fast-food   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://ktla.com/news/california/ap-california-fast-food-workers-now-earn-   
   20-per-hour-franchisees-are-responding-by-cutting-hours/   
      
   Lawrence Cheng, whose family owns seven Wendy’s locations south of Los   
   Angeles, took orders at the register on a recent day and emptied steaming   
   hot baskets of French fries and chicken nuggets, salting them with a   
   flourish.   
      
   Cheng used to have nearly a dozen employees on the afternoon shift at his   
   Fountain Valley location in Orange County. Now he only schedules seven for   
   each shift as he scrambles to absorb a dramatic jump in labor costs after   
   a new California law boosted the hourly wage for fast food workers on   
   April 1 from $16 to $20 an hour.   
      
   Is California’s fast food industry really shedding jobs?   
   “We kind of just cut where we can,” he said. “I schedule one less person,   
   and then I come in for that time that I didn’t schedule and I work that   
   hour.”   
      
   Cheng hopes the summer when business is traditionally brisk with students   
   out of school and families traveling or spending more time eating out will   
   bring a better profit that can cover the added costs.   
      
   Experts say it’s still too early to tell the long-term impact of the wage   
   hike on fast food restaurants and whether there will be widespread layoffs   
   and closures. Past wage increases have not necessarily led to job losses.   
   When California and New York nearly doubled their minimum wage previously   
   to $15 compared to the federal level of $7.25 per hour, job growth   
   continued, according to a University of California, Berkeley study.   
      
   So far, the industry has continued to show job growth. In the first two   
   months after the law passed April 1, the industry gained 8,000 jobs,   
   compared to the same period in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor   
   Statistics. No figures were available yet for June.   
      
   Joseph Bryant, executive vice president of the Service Employees   
   International Union, which pushed for the raise, said the industry has not   
   only added jobs under the new law but “multiple franchisees have also   
   noted that the higher wage is already attracting better job candidates,   
   thus reducing turnover.”   
      
   But many major fast food chain operators say they are cutting hours and   
   raising prices to stay in business.   
      
   Instead of raising prices, California fast food restaurants should do   
   this, franchisee says   
   “I’ve been in the business for 25 years and two different brands and I   
   never had to increase the amount of pricing that I did this past time in   
   April,” Juancarlos Chacon, an owner of nine Jersey Mike’s in Los Angeles,   
   said.   
      
   A turkey sub for under $10? It’s now $11.15. While customers are still   
   coming in, he’s seeing them cut back — no drinks, no chips, no dessert.   
      
   Since their core business is lunch, Chacon has been reducing staffing in   
   the mornings and evenings. He’s also cut a few part-time employees, going   
   from 165 total to about 145.   
      
   It wasn’t only entry-level workers that got a pay raise. Shift leaders,   
   assistant managers, and everyone else up the ladder had to get raises too,   
   and labor represents about 35% of his costs.   
      
   “I’m very nervous,” Chacon said.   
      
   Aaron Allen, founder and CEO of a global restaurant consulting firm, said   
   he’s gotten panicked calls from California restaurant operators and   
   suppliers that are still recovering from the COVID-19 lockdown. He   
   predicts a growing divide between corporations like McDonalds that have   
   money to invest in automation and reduce costs through “menu   
   reconfiguration, versus smaller, more regional chains that might go under   
   or face a major reduction in stores.”   
      
   Cheng said he has no plans to lay off any of his 250 Wendy’s workers and   
   instead has turned to cutting overtime and reducing the amount of workers   
   on each shift. He also raised menu prices about 8% in January in   
   anticipation of the law.   
      
   Still he said his books show that he was $20,000 over budget for a two-   
   week pay period.   
      
   Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association,   
   which opposed the minimum wage bill, said businesses are simultaneously   
   feeling the squeeze from rising rents and food costs.   
      
   “When labor costs jump more than 25% overnight, any restaurant business   
   with already-thin margins will be forced to reduce expenses elsewhere,”   
   Condie said. “They don’t have a lot of options beyond increasing prices,   
   reducing hours of operation, or scaling back the size of their workforce.”   
      
   Julieta Garcia, who’s been at a Pizza Hut in Los Angeles for a little over   
   a year, said she’s now working five days instead of six. But that’s not a   
   bad thing, she said, since she can spend more time with her 4-year-old   
   son. The extra money means she can pay her cellphone bill on time, instead   
   of having to turn off service, and take her son to get his tonsils checked   
   out, she said.   
      
   Howard Lewis, a 63-year-old retiree who works at a Wendy’s in Sacramento,   
   said he has been investing his extra money.   
      
   “Today was payday and I bought $500 worth of stock,” said Lewis. He’s also   
   helping his ex-wife fix the brakes on her car.   
      
   Gov. Gavin Newsom said the hike was necessary to give the state’s more   
   than half a million fast food workers a living wage.   
      
   “We are a state that gives a damn about fast food workers — who are   
   predominantly women — working two and a half jobs to get by,” Newsom   
   stated in his state-of-the-state address posted on social media.   
      
   For Enif Somilleda, a general manager at a Del Taco in Orange County, the   
   raise has been a mixed bag. She used to have four people working per   
   shift. She now only has two.   
      
   “Financially it has helped me,” she said. “But I have less people so I   
   have to do a lot more work.”   
      
      
   --   
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.   
      
   No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.   
   Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden   
   fiasco, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed   
   dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)