If you are living in California, prepare for the huge 2023 price increase for restaurant food across the state, and may be soon, across the whole country. History has shown us that where California goes, the rest of the country flows.
The whole world has changed since the all-destructive "plandemic" and things won't be going back to how they were. Higher wages are here to stay, but the question is how high! If restaurant labor costs are a struggle for restaurant owners now, the bill that just passed in California has the potential to put privately owned restaurants out of business in the next couple of years. The new law "AB 257" which the California governor Gavin Newscum signed in early September 2022 is going to push the minimum wage for fast food chains with 100 or more restaurants to $22 per hour as early as January 1st, 2023.
This new bill has the potential to put the privately owned restaurants out of business for good in the next couple of years.
You may think as a restaurant owner or a customer alike, that privately owned restaurants with single location or few locations are different from fast food chains with 100 or more locations. At the first glance, that may sound right. However, the increase of minimum wage for the food industry workers to $22 per hour at fast food establishments has serious implications. That is simply because no food industry is prepared to work for a privately owned restaurant for a lesser wage when he/she can make $22 per hour at fast food place. Consequently, privately owned restaurants will be forced to pay more for labor, which will inevitably reflect to the food prices for you, the consumers...
It’s time to take a hard look at what has to happen so that the restaurants can keep their prices affordable for the consumers.