The state of California has a new $20 minimum wage that goes into effect April 1, and some fast food chains are already cutting jobs.
Who could have predicted such a thing except almost everyone?
This will only spur more innovation in automation. Many fast food restaurants already use automated cashiers. At some point we will see 100% automated fast food restaurants. This new minimum wage will only make it happen faster.
The New York Post reports:
California’s fast food chains are cutting workers as a $20-an-hour minimum wage looms
California restaurants are reportedly laying off staff and reducing hours for other team members in an effort to cut costs ahead of a California state law that takes effect April 1 that will increase hourly wages of fast food workers at $20.
In the months before the wage mandate went into effect, California restaurants, particularly pizzerias, laid out a plan to cut jobs, according to state data obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza — a chain of 400 pizza restaurants founded in Menlo Park, California, mostly on the West Coast — said they plan to lay off about 1,280 delivery drivers this year, according to data that major employers must submit to the state before the big layoffs, The Journal reported.
Pizza Hut has already sent out notices to employees informing them of their last day.
Michael Ojeda, a Pizza Hut driver for eight years in Ontario, California, received one of the notes from Pizza Hut Southern California Pizza franchisee in December telling him his last day of work would be in February.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew this would happen.
Who could have predicted this entirely predictable outcome? https://t.co/PeZ4ojVKF0
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) March 25, 2024
Unexpectedly! – said the economically illiterate buffoons https://t.co/2R64oTKjZY
— Physics enthusiast (@physicalgeek) March 25, 2024
No sane human being with an IQ above room temperature is shocked by this https://t.co/PaSI21CPQU
— TheMister (@MistersHomeRoom) March 26, 2024
“I’ll take the stuff that anyone who understands economics saw coming from a mile away for $1,000, Alex.” https://t.co/kE8neGg8Pj
— Ironhead841 (@Mt2Aguy) March 25, 2024
What comes next? Workers protest against job cuts. It’s all so predictable.