In a startling turn of events, another California small business has shuttered its doors, leaving its employees in the lurch, all thanks to the state’s audacious move towards a $20 minimum wage.
Former assistant general manager, Monica Navarro, expressed her disbelief at the sudden closure of Fosters Freeze in Lemoore, California. “It’s a shock,” she lamented during an interview on “The Bottom Line.” Navarro emphasized the lack of notice, leaving employees scrambling for their next move. “It would have been nice to have a notice, so we could go get some applications out, I could prepare them,” she said ruefully.
The closure, announced abruptly to the dismay of workers arriving for their shifts, was a grim harbinger of the challenges posed by California’s new minimum wage law. Loren Wright, the owner, revealed to local media that the decision to close wasn’t taken lightly. With the new wage mandate looming, the viability of the business was called into question. “This was the last thing we wanted to do,” Wright remarked, acknowledging the abrupt end to their business journey.
The freshly enacted legislation, effective immediately, mandates a $20 minimum wage for restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide, with few exceptions. This hefty wage hike proved too burdensome for Fosters Freeze, signaling a somber reality for small businesses grappling with increased operating costs.
Navarro recounted the moment when the grim news broke to her colleagues, mere moments before they were set to clock in for their shifts. “Two of my coworkers were actually going in to clock-in for the morning. And right after that, that’s when I got a phone call that we were closing,” she recalled.
The repercussions of this wage increase are reverberating across the state, not just at Fosters Freeze but also at other fast-food joints like In-N-Out. The strain on businesses struggling to adapt to this new financial landscape is evident.
While the intention behind the wage hike may have been to uplift workers, Navarro remains skeptical. “I can see their intentions with increasing the minimum wage, thinking that it will attract more people,” she acknowledged. “But I honestly don’t think it will work.”
For Navarro and her colleagues, the bitter reality is the preference for stability over uncertainty. “From the people that I spoke to, my employees, we would have rather stayed at the wage that we did have before, just because now we don’t have a job,” Navarro explained.
The closure of Fosters Freeze is not just an isolated incident but rather a precursor to the challenges ahead for small businesses grappling with the implications of California’s ambitious wage policies. As more businesses face the heat, it’s becoming evident that the $20 minimum wage may be too steep a price to pay, signaling ominous times ahead for California’s economic landscape.
In the face of uncertainty, the plight of Fosters Freeze serves as a stark reminder of the delicate balance between progressive policy goals and the economic realities on Main Street. As the dust settles, the question remains: at what cost progress?
