“Let’s see… I can flip burgers for $22 an hour or I can take that lower-paid internship to help me get a real job that allows me to use my expensive (Fill-in-the-blank) Studies degree.”
This may be the next quandary for those who recently had their student loan burden magically disappear.
In a rare instance of a Fortune 500 corporation standing up for its best interests in the face of the woke onslaught, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger has come out forcefully against a measure passed by the California Legislature designed, it seems, to drive more businesses from the state.
Assembly Bill 257, or the FAST Recovery Act, would force companies such as McDonald’s to pay workers up to $22 per hour next year. Meanwhile, all other businesses in the state will be forced to pay a minimum wage of $15.50 per hour, almost 30% lower.
The measure will give the state government unprecedented socialistic control over the wages of workers in restaurant chains with more than 100 locations in the U.S. It aims to do this by setting up a new 10-member Fast Fail… er… Food Council. This Fast Food Council will dictate–as dictators are prone to do–the future wages, hours, and working conditions to which corporations failing… er… falling under its control must conform. Conform; go bankrupt; or leave the state that is.
In an open letter released Wednesday, Erlinger pointed out that the “lopsided, hypocritical and ill-considered legislation hurts everyone.”
Joe Erlinger, President of McDonald’s USA, response to CA’s AB 257. https://t.co/ZCnCyWLEiP
— Gina Galasso (@GinaGalasso) August 31, 2022
Unions and labor “advocates” of course are giddy, calling the proposal a watershed moment. Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry chimed in with her opinion, “This legislation is a huge step forward for workers in California and all across the country.”
That last phrase is telling regarding where the union intends to go with this.
As the legislation was being considered in the California Senate, nearly every Republican spoke in opposition. Senator Brian Dahle, the Republican nominee for governor, noted, “This is a stepping stone to unionize all these workers. At the end of the day, it’s going to drive up the cost of the products that they serve.” He also pointed out the fact that California workers are allowed to quit a job anytime they want.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes California Democrats to change the latter situation in the face of continuing worker shortages.
(Video: KPIX/YouTube)
McDonald’s USA President Erlinger appeared to appeal to both the rational and the emotional sides of the socialist mind, stating, “California is my birth state and it’s hard to watch it earn its reputation for driving businesses out of the state.”
“Once again, California is not leading the way,” he wrote.
On a national level, at least one Democratic legislator, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna of California, hailed the proposal and expressed his intent to inflict it upon the entire nation, leaving those nasty capitalistic corporations nowhere to flee to save their skins.
Unfortunately for the patrons of California restaurants, the vast majority of whom live along the coast, they do not have the option to travel to another state for their next quick burger or burrito. They will have to pay outrageous prices. For many, this will further raise their cost of living above their income, to the point where–voila!–they become eligible for more government aid.
On a related note: It will be interesting to watch the stock of companies working to automate fast food assembly in the same way automobile assembly has been automated.
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