The true minimum wage is always zero
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“we could have hamm and eggs, if we had ham, if we had eggs”
… Assistant General Manager Monica Navarro says she was called Monday morning by her boss who was at the restaurant to open, only to find the locks were being changed.
…. Navarro says the owner, Loren Wright, had previously told her the $20 minimum wage increase for fast food workers was going to be really hard on him.
She said he did not tell her or any of the other workers that he was going to close.
"I walked in, and he had just immediately said you guys are out of a job; I'm sorry," said Boado.
Navarro says she started working three years ago and worked her way up to assistant GM.
She is a full-time student at Fresno State and was planning to work there until graduation.
She was excited about the wage increase and felt like she was stabbed in the back for not getting any kind of notice.
"Please be nice to your fast food workers," said Navarro. "They're going to be getting their hours severely cut running small, small shifts. They're going to have people yelling at them for the menu increases."
Restaurant owners have been preparing for the hit by warning of reduced hours, laying off workers, and even replacing them with automation.
In a text from Loren Wright, he stated that he couldn't survive the mandated wage increases:
I tried to the end to try to figure out a way to make it work. Last thing I ever wanted was to close down," he said. "By Friday night I knew I was most likely not gonna be able to stay open but I didn't want to ruin their Easter Sunday. Small businesses can't survive a 120% plus min wage increase over the last 10 years. We are all more broke than we were 10 years ago its clear raising min wage isn't helping....I am sad to see my employees off, and sad to see lemoore off. This location has been in business for 35+ years and lemoore has been such a good place. It's painful to realize that raising min wage and regulating fast foods are putting people put if business but that is the path california leadership has taken. Thank u to my staff for everything and thank u lemoore for all the support over the years."
Maybe the laid-off employees can find work at a Paneras, but it will be at a lower wage, because the law exempts that chain, 24 branches of which are owned by Governor Noisome’s friend and major campaign contributor Greg Flynn.
When asked last year about the bread exemption that baffled many, including a specific mention of Panera, Newsom said, "That's part of the sausage-making," declining to elaborate on the reasoning..
