California’s $20 fast food minimum wage balloons menu prices — with some chains increasing costs by nearly $2

Valletta · Apr 3, 2024

California’s $20 fast food minimum wage balloons menu prices — with some chains increasing costs by nearly $2

The Post checked menus at several restaurants in the Los Angeles area to see if the costs are already being passed onto consumers — with mixed results.

nypost.com

Who could have imagined?

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

It’s legalized theft.

JustOneWay · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
It’s legalized theft.

Nope. There is no such thing as legalized theft. Actually that is an oxymoron.
When one walks into a restaurant and looks at the prices and orders the food is not considered theft, legal or illegal. People can choose to prepare food at home.

DaisyDay · Apr 3, 2024

Seems fair to me. Fast food is a luxury - pay the folks providing it a living wage.

iluvatar5150 · Apr 3, 2024

Valletta said:
California’s $20 fast food minimum wage balloons menu prices — with some chains increasing costs by nearly $2

The Post checked menus at several restaurants in the Los Angeles area to see if the costs are already being passed onto consumers — with mixed results.

nypost.com

Who could have imagined?

So wages went up 25% but prices went up only 12%? Sounds to me like those workers came out ahead.

Hammster said:
It’s legalized theft.

Oh, I’d love to hear the totally-cogent-i’m-sure economic theory behind that position.

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

JustOneWay said:
Nope. There is no such thing as legalized theft. Actually that is an oxymoron.
When one walks into a restaurant and looks at the prices and orders the food is not considered theft, legal or illegal. People can choose to prepare food at home.

When the government takes money from a store owner and gives it to an employee, that’s legalized theft.

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

DaisyDay said:
Seems fair to me. Fast food is a luxury - pay the folks providing it a living wage.

Why?

iluvatar5150 · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
When the government takes money from a store owner and gives it to an employee, that’s legalized theft.

The only money they took from the store was taxes.

JustOneWay · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
When the government takes money from a store owner and gives it to an employee, that’s legalized theft.

It is still not a thing and is still an oxymoron.

Please look up the definition for legal theft and you will see your error.

The IbanezerScrooge · Apr 3, 2024

Ooo, Ooo! I know this one. Saw it earlier. This is an In-n-Out burger. They've had elevated wages well above minimum wage for a while so this doesn't really have anything to do with the minimum wage increase. And as has been pointed out the wage increase is more than the price increase. ~~Also note that the price increase is only on ala carte items and not the meals which are still the same price.~~ And of course people are free to not go there if they feel the 12% increase is too much to bear which is the case for all of those other fast food places. A loaf of bread and sandwich meat with a bag of chips at the grocery is still pretty cheap.

Even among their competitors they're pretty cheap too:

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/18b59g7

JustOneWay · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
Why?

because

JustOneWay · Apr 3, 2024

The IbanezerScrooge said:
Ooo, Ooo! I know this one. Saw it earlier. This is an In-n-Out burger. They've had elevated wages well above minimum wage for a while so this doesn't really have anything to do with the minimum wage increase. And as has been pointed out the wage increase is more than the price increase. Also note that the price increase is only on ala carte items and not the meals which are still the same price. And of course people are free to not go there if they feel the 12% increase is too much to bear. A loaf of bread and sandwich meat with a bag of chips at the grocery is still pretty cheap.

but, but....legal theft? Like when you pass the cash to the person at the register and they legally steal your cash and put it in their register because you gave it to them!

Hans Blaster · Apr 3, 2024

iluvatar5150 said:
So wages went up 25% but prices went up only 12%? Sounds to me like those workers came out ahead.

When I worked at McD's in an earlier century our store had a policy of limiting wage costs to 25% of the total gross sales on every shift. Sometimes the manager would send one of us home after the dinner "rush" to meet that limit. (It was rarely me.)

If these stores are using a similar formula in the past, their actual costs are going up no more than 25% of 25% or 6.25% of the gross revenue. A price increase of 6% or so should have covered the *actual* increase in costs. (And that was assuming that a full 25% of the prior sales were need to cover wages and benefits.)

Rent/property tax didn't go up. Produce prices didn't go up. Franchise fees didn't go up. Utilities and insurance didn't go up. What did? Profit. The franchisees are using the cover of wage increase to grab a bit of extra profit. (Just like they did in 2021-22 with wage growth and produce price inflation.)

JustOneWay · Apr 3, 2024

iluvatar5150 said:
The only money they took from the store was taxes.

And that wasn't even theft!

Desk trauma · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
When the government takes money from a store owner and gives it to an employee, that’s legalized theft.

Are all laws controlling wages theft or just this one?

durangodawood · Apr 3, 2024

I would prefer strong unions bargaining from a position of collective power to match the collective power of the corporations.

But this is ok. I think.

mark46 · Apr 3, 2024

Hammster said:
When the government takes money from a store owner and gives it to an employee, that’s legalized theft.

Perhaps there was a tax I didn't hear of.

The government sets the rules. Business owners and consumers make the choices.
========
No one is forcing the companies to hire the workers,

No one is forcing the consumers to pay the hire prices.

Both businesses and consumers have choices.
=================
Let us the consider an example often cited. Family-owned Asian restaurants will need to close if they may the $15M minimum wage. The same was said to be the case for fast food restaurants. OK, that happened. Businesses failed because they no longer were allowed to pay workers $8 or $10 an hour. That was fine with me. I chose to pay more.

And just BTW, the workers who lost their jobs ended up working elsewhere at $15 per hour or more. Their average wage continues to go up, and the unemployment rate remains very, very low.

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

iluvatar5150 said:
The only money they took from the store was taxes.

You can rationalize it all you want. It’s theft.

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

JustOneWay said:
It is still not a thing and is still an oxymoron.

Please look up the definition for legal theft and you will see your error.

It’s theft. It’s legal.

Hammster · Apr 3, 2024

JustOneWay said:
because

Wow.

California’s $20 fast food minimum wage balloons menu prices — with some chains increasing costs by nearly $2

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