In-N-Out Burger Customers Experience 'Sticker Shock' After California's Minimum Wage Increase
CLARIFICATION, June 13, 2024: Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik noted that the figure of nearly 10,000 jobs lost because of the $20 minimum wage in California was not seasonally adjusted. The article has been updated to make that clear and to identify the source of that number.
Not that more proof was needed, but fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger has become the latest example of how meddling Democrats tend to drive up prices for everyone.
In this case, In-N-Out Burger fans are the latest victims of California’s destructive new minimum wage law as the burger chain has been forced to raise prices thanks to the government policy.
One of the West Coast’s favorite fast-food chains is raising prices in California on items including their Double-Double and Animal-Style fries, according to KTVU-TV.
The company hiked the prices on the same day it implemented the state’s new mandated $20 per hour imposed on some — but not all — fast-food operations.
“On April 1st, we raised our prices incrementally to accompany a pay raise for all of the Associates working in our California restaurants. The price increase was also necessary to maintain our quality standards,” In-N-Out Burger said in a statement.
In-N-Out heiress and President Lynsi Snyder claimed in April that she hoped to keep prices down, or at least she wanted to keep price hikes small.
“I was sitting in VP meetings going toe-to-toe saying, ‘We can’t raise the prices that much, we can’t,'” Snyder told the Today Show in April, adding that she felt “an obligation to look out for our customer.”
But Snyder did point out that when everyone else was raising prices over the last few years, “we weren’t.”
KTVU reported that a double-double meal at the In-N-Out in San Francisco is the most expensive in the Bay Area, setting diners back $13.63. In Alameda, that same order costs a little under $12. They can drive to San Jose or Pittsburg locations to pay a little bit less.
The new law has also cost Californians around 10,000 jobs and counting, according to an April 24 report by Hoover Institution economist Lee Ohanian. (That figure was not seasonally adjusted, as noted by Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik on Wednesday.)
It also is chasing even more companies out of the state as they retrench to limit the effect of the revenue hit.
Prices have been rising in California since the minimum wage increase. An LA Burger King, for instance, raised the price of a Double Texas Whopper by nearly 12 percent, from $15.09 to $16.89, earlier this year. Also, the location’s Big Fish had a 53 percent, or $4 jump, from $7.49 to $11.49, The New York Post reported in April.
The Post added that prices jumped 25 cents for some items, one dollar for others, and at some restaurants — such as Hart House, owned by actor Kevin Hart — prices rose 25 percent.
Unsurprisingly, customers are not happy with all the price hikes.
“Especially coming from Georgia, California prices are a little bit higher,” the recently arrived Khalil Coleman said of prices he was seeing in Oakland. “But when I came to In-N-Out and I was spending $20 on a meal, it’s definitely something that I did not expect at all.”
Of course, these price hikes would not be so bad if it weren’t for the Democrat-controlled state legislature and its destructive minimum wage hike.
But California is hardly the only state seeing price hikes.
In-N-Out customer Coleman also pointed out that prices are skyrocketing all across the board, thanks to inflation.
“It’s not just the price of eggs, it’s bread, it’s cheese, it’s milk, ’cause I have a 1-year-old child that we need to buy [for], so the prices in general are definitely a lot higher and it’s noticeable,” the customer said.
Some hoped the Federal Reserve would step in to lend a hand even in the face of the economic destruction of the Biden administration.
Economic prognosticators claimed that the Federal Reserve would probably initiate as many as three rate cuts this year to help out the economy, but on Wednesday, the Fed scotched those predictions and said it only plans one rate cut this year, CNBC reported.
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