California’s minimum wage for fast-food workers increased from $16 to $20 per hour effective April 1. The new law raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers and established a Fast Food Council, aiming to ensure better treatment and future wage increases for employees. Fast-food workers are now being paid $20 compared to the $16 minimum for many other jobs.
According to the LA Times, some fast-food employers are raising the prices of their food to compensate for the higher wages they now have to pay their workers.
Occidental student Alyanna McGrath (junior) said she eats fast food often and has noticed the prices of fast food rising.
“When’s the last time you had a $5 footlong? I forgot those existed,” McGrath said. “Now, you go to Subway, and it’s something like $6 to $12 for just a sandwich.”
Occidental student Chelsea Groves (junior) said that she understands both sides of the argument around raising the fast-food minimum wage.
“It’s a mixed emotion. I definitely see the value to being able to make a living wage, and how not being able to do that can severely impact a person’s life,” Groves said. “But on the flip side, [I consider] the impact it has on customers. A $20 meal is one hour’s worth of work.”
Groves said she currently works multiple minimum wage jobs on campus, and that she would appreciate earning more money under the new law, but recognizes the negative effects of higher prices.
“It doesn’t really seem reasonable to be working an hour, an hour and a half, just to put that towards a small meal,” Groves said. “I would like it if I got paid more, but at the same time dislike having the cost [of food] raised.”
Capri Club bartender Peter Luber said that he doesn’t believe fast-food prices are rising because workers are being paid more. He said costs for materials such as beef are rising, and owners want to make more of a profit.
“They’re going to raise prices anyway, and they’re going to use that as an excuse,” Luber said.
Eagle Rock resident Lucas Lyndes said he supports the raised wage. He said he believes it should be increased past $20 and that he makes a distinction between the minimum wage and a fair, living wage.
“There’s been that divergence between minimum wage and the cost of living,” Lyndes said. “It has gone way up, and the minimum wage hasn’t followed.”
Lyndes said he chooses to support restaurants that pay higher wages to employees.
“When I see people striking at a fast-food restaurant or certain coffee chains, I won’t go there,” Lyndes said. “If [I] read a lot on social media about people not being able to earn a living wage there, then I won’t support it.”
Jose Cruz, an employee at Del Taco on Eagle Rock Boulevard, said that he has started to be paid more as a result of the law.
“It’s helping, for sure, financially,” Cruz said.
Leanna Lin, owner of small business Leanna Lin’s Wonderland on Eagle Rock Boulevard, said paying her employees more than minimum wage does not affect the prices she charges.
“The only way that we have to raise [the prices of] our items is when our [materials]* cost goes up,” Lin said.
Luber said as a tipped employee, he does not work for minimum wage now but has done so in the past.
“At my old job, they tripled the prices, and they didn’t give us any more money,” Luber said.
Luber said that he has previously worked for $10 an hour. He said a higher minimum wage would have affected his life.
“I would have been able to climb out of poverty a decade earlier,” Luber said.
Contact Ruby Gower at gower@oxy.edu
*This article was corrected at 4:18 p.m. on April 17, 2024, to accurately represent Lin’s quote. A previous article had ‘operation’ in brackets instead of ‘materials’.
