Fast food minimum wage increase went into effect they will receive $20 an hour

Some fast-food restaurants in California raised their pay for workers today to $20 an hour. That’s four dollars higher than the minimum wage for everyone else.

“I think in the bigger cities, it’s going to be great, like Los Angeles, San Francisco,” said Chris Nunez, a crew member at Chipotle. “For the littler cities, it might have an impact.”

But this law only applies to employees of fast food restaurants meaning the restaurant must be a limited-service restaurant–is one that offers limited or no table service– it’s part of a chain with at least 60 stores nationwide and is primarily selling food and beverages for immediate consumption.

Places like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Jack in the Box, Domino’s, Starbucks and Mod Pizza are all impacted.

“We just need to make sure that we’re keeping on the same track that we have been in,” said Andre Rosado, the Director of Operations at Mod Pizza. “You know trying not to pass that extra cost on to the consumer who has been feeling that extra for the past few years with every increase we had.”

Mod Pizza decided to change its menu as a result.

“We are introducing a tiered system in our pricing now,” Rosado said. “Mod has always been one price, all toppings. But to create a little bit better value, we’ve introduced a single topping price. Also the cheese pizza price. So families with kids and stuff that come in and still enjoy the experience here at Mod, you know, being able to take advantage of that.”

Restaurants that aren’t included in this wage increase are restaurants located within a grocery or retail store, smaller and local chain restaurants, airports, hotels, theme parks, museums, or gambling establishments are also exempt from implementing this law. 

So what do you think about this increase? Tell us in the comments or email us.