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The California Job-Killer That Wasn’t | The state raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers—and employment kept rising. So why has the law been proclaimed a failure? (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 4 days ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/politics@lemmy.world

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That doesn’t mean raising the minimum wage had no negative consequences. Reich and his co-author, Denis Sosinsky, found that the higher minimum wage caused menu prices in California fast-food chains to rise by about 3.7 percent. That number is far lower than the “$20 Big Macs” that critics of the law warned of, but it’s still significant at a time when many consumers are deeply upset over the post-pandemic spike in food prices. Even so, Reich points out that this number pales in comparison with the 18 percent raise that the average fast-food worker received because of the new law. (The authors calculated that about 62 percent of the wage increase was absorbed through higher prices, while the rest was likely absorbed by a mix of reduced turnover and, crucially, lower profits for franchisees—hence the massive industry resistance.)

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[-] PortoPeople@lemm.ee 37 points 4 days ago

Yup. Overwhelming success for the economy as it always is whenever you raise the minimum wage.

[-] silence7@slrpnk.net 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yeah, there's probably some level that's too high, but $16 to $20 per hour is pretty clearly a long ways from it still.

this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024

232 points (99.2% liked)

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