Fast food restaurants and customers are preparing for a minimum wage jump to take effect next week, which some say is a long time coming. Starting April 1st, fast food restaurants in California will be required to pay employees at least $20 an hour, up from $17.06. But as the day approaches, reactions are mixed. Some are worried the wage increase will come with higher food prices, but others are just happy to be paid more.
Maria Lorenzo, an assistant general manager at Dominoes, says that despite the wage increase, her store will not raise prices.
Maria Lorenzo: I know, for a fact that we’re not going to increase prices. We were at a meeting where they said that Domino’s is going to keep the same prices. We’re just gonna have to keep labor under control.
Lorenzo is excited for the increase because she works two jobs to support herself and her family.
Olivia Richardson, a manager at the Momota Ramen House, lamented the fact that because the restaurant is a privately owned business, their wages will not increase. Richardson said if their food prices have to be raised, she hopes her salary will increase as well.
Olivia Richardson: If we raise prices, then I’m definitely asking my boss for a raise for all of us, because I only think it’s fair.
Richardson did mention, however, that the restaurant is currently trying other methods to bring in more profit without raising prices.
Olivia Richardson: My boss has been looking into change not only, you know, possibly raising prices, but looking to other items to bring into the restaurant. Like, as you see up on our board, we put some new sushis up there. And I think she’s just looking to do something a little more fresher, you know, still have our old popular items and have old stuff, but just trying to bring something new.
Trinidad Mendez, an assistant manager at Momota Ramen House, attributed the reason for wage hikes to the cost of living in Los Angeles.
Trinidad Mendez: Increasing minimum wages is just a response to just higher cost of living. And that is becoming like abundantly, something that has become abundantly clear to be a problem here in the city of Los Angeles, with increasing rent prices. And just overall increasing rates of homelessness
Tia Koonse, a legal and policy researcher at UCLA, explained that fears of wage and price increases driving customers away are unfounded.
Tia Koonse: We have not seen that there’s been any depreciation in customer base, or in buying power, because fast food workers are fast food customers. So when you pay your fast food workers more, they can buy more food, right? low wage workers tend to spend money in the immediate local economy, a low wage workers spending money on housing, utilities and groceries, it doesn’t get much more local than that.
Koonse also said that she has personally witnessed market trends over the past couple of wage increases and always seen that jobs will stay consistent and customers will keep coming back.
Tia Koonse: In my, you know, 10, 15 years in the movement, seen a number of minimum wage increase. And every single time the argument is, this is going to drive up prices. This is going to result in layoffs. This is going to kill the economy. And what we’ve seen is that as the minimum wage has gone up in LA County faster, even in the States, so now it’s 1774 or whatever, it is an hour here. Fast food jobs is increased. So I think the data suggest that we can only expect this is going to be a net benefit.
California will have another chance to prove that customers can remain loyal to the fast food market starting Monday.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Jennifer Nehrer.