Following California implementing a law raising its minimum wage to $20 for more than 500,000 fast-food workers in the state in 2024, Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research firm Beacon Economics, offered a warning about the state raising its minimum wage.
“California’s well-intended push to reduce income inequality via wage floors is beginning to have a significant negative impact on some of our most vulnerable workers—our youth, particularly those from lower-income households,” he wrote earlier this year.
His concerns echoed those of fast-food franchise owners, one of whom told Fortune in 2024 that higher wages would be unsustainable for smaller chains with slim margins.
But nearly two years after the law’s passage, economists are seeing very different results than what was initially feared. A working paper from University of California at Berkeley released this month found the policy increased average weekly wages for eligible workers by 11% and did not reduce employment. Prices increased modestly, about 1.5%, or the equivalent of about six cents for a $4 item.
Historically, the lowering of prices have come as a detriment to the consumer. Be it lower wages for workers, less benefits for workers, difference in quality of materials, quality of creation, quality control to let lemons through, exploiting vulnerable work forces elsewhere. Rarely has it resulted in a better product or service.
I think you’re confusing symptoms of late stage capitalism with economies of scale.
Do you honestly think that handmade goods only by craftsman should be the exclusive way we have goods made?