Good news is that California fast food workers got a big raise. Bad news is that 6,000 workers didn’t because they were let go.
Newsom claimed that there have been several positive impacts from the policy, including job growth and improved working conditions, in a September op-ed published by Fox News. The facts?
Since the law’s passage in September 2023, the state’s privately-owned fast food restaurants have lost 6,166 jobs through June. But Newsom claims that it’s been better since the passage. Better for who? not the laid off worker, or the customers who now pay more.
“The OpEd in Fox News today by the governor is disappointing because it paints a very misleading picture about what’s going on on the ground,” Rebekah Paxton, director of research and state coalitions at the EPI, told The Center Square in a September interview. “Instead of touting these numbers that most economists would say don’t accurately measure the situation, it would behoove Governor Newsom to talk to the workers and talk to the operators who are losing their jobs and losing their livelihoods as a result of this policy.”
