Hoover Institution – California Globe

Gov. Newsom Touts Misleading UC Berkeley Study on California’s $20 Fast Food Wage

April 8, 2026 3:10 pmApril 8, 2026 3:20 pm

California has such an absurdly high cost of living that some misguided lawmakers think increasing the minimum wage will offset nearly $1 million median home prices, $7.00-per-gallon gas prices, and $500 – $1,000 monthly electricity bills. The minimum wage was...

California’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Continues to Bite Workers, Consumers and Owners

March 20, 2026 4:40 amMarch 20, 2026 4:41 am

California is reaching a grim two-year anniversary of the ill-advised $20 fast food minimum wage. AB 1228, California’s $20 wage law for fast food workers, cost non-tipped restaurant workers 250 hours of work annually, equating to up to 7 weeks...

Gavin Newsom’s Sunday Circuit on Affordability is Dishonest

February 23, 2026 12:26 pmFebruary 23, 2026 12:26 pm

California Governor Gavin Newsom was cornered by Dana Bash on CNN Sunday about California’s affordability crisis. She said she was out to dinner in Nashville and met a California couple who had moved to Tennessee because they could not afford...

New Economic Study Finds California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Caused 18,000 Job Losses

July 14, 2025 7:24 amJuly 14, 2025 7:27 am

“New data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics was released Thursday, revealing a staggering 36,565 fast food jobs have been lost since September 2023 when the $20 per hour minimum wage law, AB 1228, was signed into law,” the...

California’s $20 Wage Law Cost Restaurant Workers 7 Weeks Worth of Work

May 20, 2025 2:57 pmMay 22, 2025 6:37 am

The Employment Policies Institute just released new data showing AB 1228, California’s $20 wage law for fast food workers, cost non-tipped restaurant workers 250 hours of work annually, equating to up to 7 weeks of lost work – up to...

California Minimum Wage Madness

January 3, 2025 10:54 amJanuary 3, 2025 10:54 am

“Countries with minimum wage laws almost invariably have higher rates of unemployment than countries without minimum wage laws,” Economist Thomas Sowell explained in 2013. “As for being ‘compassionate’ toward ‘the poor,’ this assumes that there is some enduring class of...

The Governor’s Lie That Won’t Die

December 17, 2024 6:19 amDecember 17, 2024 6:19 am

California Governor Gavin Newsom is grasping at straws. Without question, new quarterly government (QCEW) data shows that California has lost thousands of jobs since the Governor’s $20 fast food minimum wage law was signed into law. The data doesn’t lie,...