As of next week, fast-food workers in California will be able to make at least $20 an hour. After realizing that the over 500,000 people who work in fast food are adults supporting their families and not kids just out of high school, Democrats started to speak out last year in favor of raising the minimum wage for these workers.
People who work seem to like the raise because they say they don’t have to work as many hours or can work part-time at a fast food place while working full-time somewhere else. On the other hand, franchise owners are having a hard time keeping their shops open.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Alex Johnson runs several Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s restaurants. He said that sales have been dropping so much that he had to fire his office staff and ask his parents to help with things like payroll.
He went on to say that the raise would cost him almost $500,000 a year which he could not afford. He also said he wasn’t hiring anyone new or looking for new places to open, and it’s possible that he would have to raise his prices.
The bill had an effect on Johnson, who said, “I try to do right by my employees.” I give them the most money I can. But this law is really making our business hard to run…I need to think about selling or even shutting down my business. “The profit margin has become too thin when you take into account all the other costs that are going up,” he said.
At the moment, California’s minimum wage is about $16 an hour, but it can be higher in some places with stronger economies. It has been talked about a lot whether people will lose their jobs because of the raise because companies will have to lay off workers to make up for it.
