But, but $20 an hour was to create a fair livable wage. Pizza Hut across California lays off drivers. So what happened? Why would anyone be surprised? This is only the beginning. The increase goes into effect come April. Don’t be surprised if more layoffs happen.
Two large Pizza Hut operators in California are laying off all their delivery drivers ahead of a new state law that raises the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour, Business Insider reports.
The layoffs impact hundreds of Pizza Hut locations across the state including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties and Sacramento, and involve more than 1,200 in-house delivery drivers.
The job cuts will take place through February, according to federal employment notices obtained by Business Insider.
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed the FAST Act into law. It called for the minimum wage for fast-food workers to increase to $22 an hour in 2023. But corporate chains such as McDonald’s, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and franchise-advocacy groups fought the law. A coalition of restaurant-industry organizations said the law could raise costs for fast-food restaurants by $3 billion. They rallied to get a referendum on the ballot.
A new law, AB 1228, replaced the controversial FAST Act this year. The minimum-wage increase for fast-food workers was changed to $20 an hour. The new law was viewed as a compromise between the labor unions representing fast-food workers and the restaurant industry.
So, now those folks will have to rely on third party delivery services and you know that won’t be cheap. The law affects 557,000 fast-food workers at 30,000 restaurants in California.
