If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it hundreds of times: When the government interferes in the marketplace, bad things happen. Minimum wage mandates are not the least of these worries, but meddlers will meddle and, in the face of facts, still think they know better.
Related: Gov. Nuisance Chokes on His Minimum Wage Hike
Gov. Nuisance and the California legislature scheduled a series of wage hikes for the good of the people (natch!). That was their story, and they stuck to it. Enough fools believed them, but these mandates predictably harmed the state and the people they claimed they would help.
“California businesses have been under total attack and total assault for years,” said Tom Manzo, CABIA president and founder in a statement to Fox Business, adding “It’s just another law that puts businesses in further jeopardy.”
According to Manzo, nearly 10,000 fast food jobs have been cut across the state since Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1287 into law last year.
“You can only raise prices so much,” he said. “And you’re seeing it. People are not going to pay $20 for a Big Mac. It’s not going to happen.“
So, why do it? Why make changes to wage laws that every law of economics and common sense tells us will result in more harm than good? Union bosses. By jacking up base pay, the unions can raise dues and reap more money to spend on themselves, Democrat campaigns, and boots-on-the-ground activism.
Meanwhile, all over California,
“Restaurants are struggling to stay above water, and Democrats just threw them an anvil,” California Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher told FOX Business. “We warned Democrats this new mandate would cost jobs. They ignored us, and here we are with the highest unemployment rate in the country poised to get even worse.”
The “digital options” that many fast food franchises are referring to are automated ordering systems as well as robot workers which are slowly but surely becoming more cost effective than human laborers. At least one fast food location in California is testing a fully robotic restaurant with no human workers.
And that’s not even the moral of the story. That would be how Democrats in your state and mine want to be like California. They probably propose minimum wage hikes every session or nearly advertised as good for workers but that’s backward.
It is up to you (and us) to ensure people know the truth. If you need a real-world example of why not to do it, remember to thank Gov. Nuisance and California.