Increasing pay for all fast-food workers, Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228, which sets a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers starting in April 2024.
This is going to be huge for a lot of people in this industry. Many students have jobs and work low hours due to school restrictions. This raise may spike interest in these students who may need money to support themselves.
A sophomore at Pierce College, Mariana Torres stated, “It would help a lot with bills and would help with groceries. A low minimum wage doesn’t help with saving, and I am stuck with the same amount of money. Wants aren’t in my mind, just needs.”
According to the National Center for Education, about 40% of students, both in high school and college, have jobs in fast food. This may seem low, but these students could use the money for all their needs.
Senior, Marek Thompson stated, “It would help a lot with spending more money on wants. Also I feel that I do a lot with having to handle customers and having to handle harder tasks.”
The reason for this raise is to make the salary of fast food workers livable, due to the high amount of workers in this industry. These workers also have to be tasked with keeping a huge amount of health, safety, and service standards.
SHRM (Society of Human Resources Management) stated, “The council’s purpose is to establish minimum standards on wages, working hours, training and other working conditions to maintain the health, safety and welfare of fast-food workers.”
It is very much true that the raise would increase the salary of workers, but this raise mainly affects consumers. Multiple salaries increasing means product increase. Therefore, this raise would affect consumers immediately.
Furthermore, the raise isn’t only for this year. It is said that the minimum wage for this year would be $20 but will increase annually until 2029. Keep in mind that this raise would only apply to 60 different companies that have similar products.
According to Investopedia, Workers could get laid off and there could be fewer job opportunities. The competition to be hired by these companies would be increasingly harder every year.
Concerns from the Service Employees International Union stated, “Raising the minimum wage to $20 for fast-food restaurant workers could lead to fewer job opportunities, a loss of jobs, hours cut, and reductions in benefits and compensation. Businesses may also shift to labor substitution, with machines and automation replacing hourly jobs.”
All in all, there are many mixed feelings about the raise. It would have a huge impact on the economy and could change labor distributions. Many companies would have to figure things out quickly before it becomes chaotic. Some people see only the benefits but are still blinded and can not see the downside of these actions.
