PREDICTABLE: California Fast Food Restaurants Slash Jobs as New $20 Minimum Wage is About to Take Effect

The state of California has a new $20 minimum wage going into effect on April 1st and some fast food chains are already slashing jobs.

Who could have predicted such a thing, besides almost everyone?

This will only spur more innovation in automation. Many fast food restaurants already use automated cashiers. At some point, we will see fast food restaurants that are 100 percent automated. This new minimum wage will only bring that about faster.

The New York Post reports:

Calif. fast-food chains slash workers as $20-an-hour minimum wage looms

California restaurants are reportedly laying off staff and reducing hours for other team members in an effort to cut costs ahead of a California state law taking effect on April 1 that will raise fast-food workers’ hourly wage to $20.

In the months leading up to the wage mandate, California eateries, particularly pizza joints, have established a plan to cut jobs, according to state records obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza — a Menlo Park, Calif.-founded chain of 400 pizza parlors, mostly on the West Coast — have said they plan to lay off around 1,280 delivery drivers this year, according to records that major employers must submit to the state before large layoffs, The Journal reported.

Pizza Hut already sent notices to employees informing them of their last day.

Michael Ojeda, a Pizza Hut driver for eight years in Ontario, Calif., received one of the notes from Pizza Hut franchisee Southern California Pizza in December telling him that his last day of work would be in February.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew this would happen.

Who could have predicted this entirely predictable outcome? https://t.co/PeZ4ojVKF0

— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) March 25, 2024

Unexpectedly! – said the economically illiterate buffoons https://t.co/2R64oTKjZY

— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) March 25, 2024

No sane human with above a room temperature IQ is shocked by this https://t.co/PaSI21CPQU

— TheMister (@MistersHomeRoom) March 26, 2024

“I’ll take things that everyone who understands economics saw coming from a mile away for a $1000, Alex.” https://t.co/kE8neGg8Pj

— Ironhead841 (@Mt2Aguy) March 25, 2024

What comes next? Workers protesting the slashing of jobs. It’s all so predictable.