California's fast-food workers are now the highest paid in U.S. with new $20 per hour wage
www.cbsnews.com
Starting April 1, the minimum wage for most fast-food workers in California will jump to $20 an hour — the highest in the U.S.

Starting Monday, most California fast-food workers will earn at least $20 an hour — the highest minimum wage across the U.S. restaurant industry. Yet the pay hike is sparking furious debate, with some restaurant owners warning of job losses and higher prices for customers, while labor advocates tout the benefits of higher wages.

The new law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last fall, takes effect on April 1, requiring that fast-food chains with at least 60 locations nationwide pay workers at least $20 an hour. The means the state’s 553,000 fast-food workers will earn more than the state’s $16 minimum wage for all other industries.

The new baseline wage comes as the fast-food industry is seeing booming earnings, with big chains like McDonald’s enjoying strong revenue growth and wider profit margins in recent years. That’s partly due to menu prices that have far outpaced inflation, with fast-food costs surging 47% over the past decade, compared with an average of 29% for all other prices, according to a new analysis from the Roosevelt Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    In California, near me, the closest McDonalds, Panera’s, and Togo’s have adopted kiosk-based ordering, which takes the human out of the ordering loop. None are pure kiosk (at least not yet).

    The Panera’s also had orders dropped off at tables, and appears to have ended that practice; they also removed the numbered buzzers. Now they’ll notify a cell phone if a number was entered at the kiosk, and if not, call the name on the receipt from the pickup counter.

    EDIT: Actually, as a result of this conversation, I went over to the Togo’s in question, where the manager – who I think, from hearing her talk to people during some remodeling work, is also the owner of this particular franchise location – was working the counter along with some other employees. She confirmed that Togo’s was gonna see the minimum wage increase, sounded worried about what it was gonna do to costs. Then immediately the other guy waiting at the pick-up counter started complaining about California housing costs and both of the two started complaining to each other about inflation.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, I don’t want to be in their database so opt to have my name called, but often miss them calling from the pickup counter now. It is definitely obnoxious.

        Come to think of it, I wonder if anyone has built a database linking phone numbers to Bluetooth UUIDs? I assume that software on a cell phone can obtain the phone number and the Bluetooth UUID and the full name of the user, so probably free-to-play games and the like will sell it.

        And if that’s the case, if you correlate with that data, you can identify customers from the Bluetooth UUIDs.