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CA FF minimum wage boost: don't let the lies win [1]

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Date: 2024-06-25  

While this is no longer a major topic, have no doubt that the California law that increased the minimum wage to $20 for fast food (FF) workers is not a dead issue. The right wing will bring this up again, especially if (when?) Newsom runs for national office. At the time of its implementation, I saw many articles here (in CA) about how many businesses being harmed by it: a local FF place closing, and worker complaining that a low wage job was better than no job. A guy in SF with many Aunt Annies pretzels places being forced to go under. It all sounded like a disaster.

Then came the stats: according to right wing media, the law DID cause a decrease in employment in the FF “industry”. A lot of this is outlined in an article in the LA Times, behind a pay wall: “The fast-food industry claims the California wage law is costing jobs. Its numbers are fake.” Its states how a US Today ad stated that 10,000 FF jobs have been lost. The writer of the LA Times article, Michael Hiltzik, states that the claim is “baloney, sliced thick.” Similar untruths have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and the Hoover Institution. Their lies are based on misuse of the stats: they have been using statistics that were not seasonally adjusted. While figures are not final yet, seasonally adjusted data indicates a rise of 10,000 FF jobs in CA.

My last comment is that ALL the articles that I have seen about this wage increase focus on the poor poor business owners who are not going to be decimated if they have to pay someone $4 more to sell their $8 burgers. Not one has been directed toward the intention of the law: to improve the lives of fast food workers. Not one about how Julia can now afford to have her son’s ear infection treated, or how Jose can afford to buy some fresh produce at the farmers market, or how Maria can maybe take a fricking day off now. And not a single mention of how now 760,000 people in CA will now be able to buy more fast food (among other things). Demonstrating the strong bias in all our media to the rich and powerful.

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