Restaurant owner fears California minimum wage law is ‘a silent tax’ on consumers, ‘collapsing’ businesses

One Los Angeles-based restaurant owner is voicing her concerns over customers – and employees – having to eat up the costs of California’s soon-to-be enacted fast food minimum wage.

“We are the ones that were strong enough to be the mom-and-pop shops that survived COVID. And now we’re hit with this, and it directly impacts the small businesses,” Angela Marsden said on “America’s Newsroom” Friday.

“We’re going to have massive layoffs, massive job losses,” she continued. “And when it comes to being a mom-and-pop shop, if you can get $20 an hour dropping fries at McDonald’s, what do you expect, you want me to pay to make a nice meal or a nice hamburger? My hamburger, currently, is going up to 20-some dollars an hour.”

In December, California Gov. Gavin Newsom passed a law that increases the minimum wage for food industry workers to $20 per hour. The minimum wage for workers in other industries across the state stands at $15.50, among the highest in the nation.

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The new wage takes effect on April 1, 2024, and applies to workers at restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide, except those that make and sell their own bread. 

Marsden claimed a friend who owns seven McDonald’s franchises plans to close four locations due to the increased employment costs.

“Now they’re getting laid off. They’re losing their jobs,” the restaurant owner said. “Gavin Newsom, I hope the United States is watching. I hope he never becomes president. This man is destroying California. I don’t understand why people can’t see that he’s the biggest trickster of all time.”

Other California food chains – including Pizza Hut, Southern California Pizza, Round Table Pizza and Vitality Bowls – have announced layoffs in lieu of the law.

“It is a silent tax on the public. The public will pay for the unemployment of the people that are let go. The public will pay the $26 now for the hamburger. The lower class, middle class, upper class has been completely shut out. They can’t even afford to go to McDonald’s, let alone come to my place. And businesses are collapsing,” Marsden criticized.

“My kitchen has been here since 1978, and I’ve cut my bookkeeper. I’ve cut my hours,” she added. “It is literally making way for corporations and big [conglomerates], people with a lot of money will be able to have a business.”

The restaurant owner hypothesized that Newsom wants to push the industry to incorporate artificial intelligence (A.I.) solutions to keep their doors open.

“People need to wake up. This is like when you go out to the circus and the guy has a big fancy trick he’s showing you,” Marsden said. “Meanwhile, somebody is stealing all the money out of your pocket, because this tax is being passed on to the consumer.”

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FOX Business’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.