This revelation comes after the fast food industry has bashed California’s minimum wage law, as it’s led to many fast food eateries being forced to shut down, lay off employees, or raise menu prices.

Before this increase, the highest-paid workers in the US were those in Washington State, whose minimum wage is $16.28 per hour.

However, some restaurant bosses have admitted that higher quality workers have been applying to their fast food locations because of this higher wage.

These better-quality workers have seemingly begun to apply to fast-food restaurants because of the higher wages they’re guaranteed to receive.

“If there’s a silver lining in all that, it’s greatly improved the availability of labor for QSR [quick-service restaurants] at least temporarily in California,” Holthouser stated.

“We’re seeing actually a big influx of labor coming to our restaurants,” Schmandt said. “People are moving from other industries into restaurants because of this. So we’re actually seeing an increase in quality of labor.”

Although the average price in other areas had only increased by 29%, fast-food restaurants were seeing record profits and were still able to attract customers because their love of quick, cheap, and easy meals hadn’t gone away.

The council can increase the fast food minimum wage each year by 3.5% or in line with inflation, whichever is higher. It can also advise and work with California state agencies on worker safety standards and investigations into various issues, such as wage theft.

It mustn’t offer table service, and if it does, this has to be limited. It should be part of a chain of at least 60 restaurants and it must serve food and beverages that should either be immediately consumed or eaten when the customer returns home.

This guidance also states that the store must sell other items in addition to groceries, earn more than 50% of its gross income from the sale of groceries, and employ the workers who work at the restaurant located inside the grocery store.

There are a variety of reasons why higher quality workers applying for jobs may not become a permanent feature seen throughout all fast food restaurants. Analysts point to the rest of California industries vying to increase their minimum wage as one of the sole reasons why this benefit could become short-lived.

This is because they are still on the same wages that fast food workers were once on and can’t afford the rising cost of living. They believe an increase in the minimum wage in their industries would help them greatly.

This is because more workers are flocking to these higher-paying jobs at fast-food establishments. Other restaurants will want to keep these better-quality workers — so, they’ll raise their minimum wage.

Of course, for workers in California, this could be seen as a positive, as the job market may begin to offer employment that features higher pay than seen in the past few years throughout the state.

Therefore, these industries risk losing their current employees to the fast food industry if they do not offer them a reasonable wage increase that helps them afford the rising cost of living.

Many in the industry had to work multiple jobs in order to meet these high costs. The law was supposed to help these workers better deal with California’s high cost of living.

This has caused many Californians to move out of the state they have lived in their entire lives and choose to live in cheaper states, as they simply can’t afford anything in the Golden State anymore.

However, this wage increase also has some cons. These include workers being replaced by machines, a rise in prices, and reduced operating hours.

Some chain locations have even completely shut down, as they’ve cited that they can not afford to pay workers $20 an hour.

In February 2024, California’s unemployment rate was 5.3%, much higher than the US average of 3.9%.

From the get-go, the industry has warned lawmakers in California that this minimum wage law would make fast food unaffordable. Now, many consumers in the state have echoed this statement.

Instead, they choose to make their food at home or go to casual dining restaurants. As these restaurants are now only slightly more expensive than fast food outlets, people have realized they can get more for their money.

The salary of a fast food manager has gone up to $83,200 a year, which has gone up by 25%. What’s worse is that this is only the average, with general managers at Raising Cane’s stores receiving an annual salary of $174,000.

However, the addition of digital kiosks and automation devices could also be seen in a negative light, especially considering these types of technology take the place of human workers.