Multiple fast food restaurants in the Central Valley have shut down after the $20 minimum wage law took effect this week.
According to reports, a Fosters Freeze in Lemoore and five Mod Pizza locations in California have shuttered.
The backstory: California’s new fast food minimum wage law took effect on Monday, raising the hourly minimum to $20.
The big picture: KMPH reported that a Fosters Freeze in Lemoore shut down on Monday without giving advance notice to its employees.
- Assistant General Manager Monica Navarro told KMPH that the restaurant’s owner, Loren Wright, had previously told her that the new minimum wage law would be very hard on him.
- Mod Pizza also shut down five restaurants in California this week as the chain closed 27 of its locations nationwide.
- That includes the Clovis location, which reportedly did not give its employees notice until two days before it closed.
What they’re saying: Wright told KMPH that he tried to keep the Fosters Freeze open but was not able to make it work with the new wage hike.
- “Small businesses can’t survive a 120% plus min wage increase over the last 10 years. We are all more broke than we were 10 years ago its clear raising min wage isn’t helping,” Wright wrote in a statement.
