Gov. Newsom’s Office Continues to Fib About Fast Food Job Losses – Claims Job Gains

The Globe received another of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s PR flaks’ gloating emails still claiming that fast food jobs are up in California – even with the $20 per hour wage going into effect April 2024.

In June, the Globe reported that California has lost just under 10,000 fast food jobs since the new $20 minimum wage for fast food employees was first signed into law late last year, according to the California Business and Industrial Alliance (CABIA).

CABIA cited data and a report from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This article apparently displeased the Governor’s office. We received an email from Brandon Richards (He/Him), Deputy Director of Communications in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, asking for a retraction or correction and claiming the state has gained jobs since the $20 per hour fast food minimum wage.

Interestingly, their PR tactic is to continue the lie, and skew and manipulate data, even in the face of more and more fast food restaurants closing in California, cutting staff, adding more automation and cutting overtime.

Rather than taking my word for it, or believing your own lying eyes, the Globe spoke with Economist Rebekah Paxton for her analysis of Gov. Newsom’s claims.

Paxton, who holds advanced degrees from Boston University in Economics and Political Science, is the research director at the Employment Policies Institute.

Here is Brandon Richards’ (He/Him) latest fairytale:

I wanted to reach out because you previously wrote about the number of fast food jobs in California, and wanted to be sure you saw that July marked the fourth month the $20/hour min wage law has been in effect and for the fourth straight month California saw job growth – making it 7 straight months of job growth in this sector this year!

In fact, California’s fast food industry is at its highest employment level ever.

Job growth when looking at it from September 2023 – July 2024

When Governor Newsom signed the bill to most recent month’s data

Job growth every month from January 2024 to July 2024

Every month this year leading up to and including the law being in effect

Job growth when looking at it from March 2024 to July 2024

The last month prior to the law going into effect and the first three months of the law in effect.

Job growth when looking at April 2023 to April 2024

Year over year, showing no discouragement about new law going into effect (April 2024)

Job growth when looking at it July 2023 to July 2024

Year over year, showing California’s industry continues to grow

This all comes despite the early, and false, criticism by a corporate trade group that attempted to push outdated data seemingly for political purposes – and they were rightfully called out.

I have included the BLS data chart below for ease.

Looking forward to your continued coverage, and more accurate portrayal of the current environment than what has been written in the past.

Have a lovely weekend,

Brandon

BRANDON RICHARDS (He/Him)

Deputy Director for Rapid Response

As Rebekah Paxton told us in June: “Newsom is stretching the truth to obscure the obvious: His fast food minimum wage hike has been a disaster. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs, hours are being slashed, and restaurants are closing at an alarming pace. The public isn’t fooled by Newsom’s statistical spin.”

This remains true today.

“He is using the non-adjusted data set,” Paxton said in an interview with the Globe Tuesday. “He went after other groups for using these last time around. But as of July, California is still down 3,000 fast food jobs since January 2024.”

There have been historical fast food job losses because of the increase to the $20 per hour minimum wage. And the governor and his PR staff don’t appear to care that people are losing their jobs – they’d rather gaslight minimum wage workers and claim fast food jobs are up.

“They are cherry picking different time periods here,” Paxton said, “and the administration’s statistics don’t hold up.”

Paxton said the September 2023 to July 2024 time period is a very big time period and arbitrary since September is when the bill was signed, but it wasn’t until January 2024 that we started seeing headlines about fast food companies starting layoffs and job cuts in preparation for the April 2024 effective date of the new minimum wage increase to $20 per hour.

Indeed – the Globe reported December 26, 2023, “Pizza Hut Fires Over 1,200 Drivers In California Before New $20 Minimum Wage Comes Into Effect.”

Even the March 2024 to July 2024 time period, Paxton said is missing about half of the job loss data, since the job cuts started in January 2024, ahead of the April 2024 implementation.

“The BLS statistics show that there have been fast food job losses in 6 of 7 months,” Paxton said. “The net numbers show January through today, 3,000 fast food jobs lost in California.”

Additionally, An EPI survey indicates these changes are here to stay if the fast food minimum wage law continues.

EPI reports:

Federal jobs data has shown California’s fast food industry has been hemorrhaging jobs for months – but how does the Golden State stack up to its Western neighbors?

A look at the data for Oregon and Nevada, the only West Coast states for which fast food industry-level data was available, show the fast food jobs loss trend is not ailing other states, and is more likely related to the aggressive $20 wage hike policy (atop California’s already exhaustive set of labor regulations).

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, All Employees: Leisure and Hospitality: Limited-Service Restaurants and Other Eating Places in California [SMU06000007072259001SA], Oregon [SMU41000007072259001SA], and Nevada [SMU32000007072259001SA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SMU06000007072259001SA, August 13, 2024.

“Bureau of Labor Statistics latest seasonally adjusted data shows that in Oregon and Nevada, the two states data was available, fast food jobs have been growing since January. In this same time frame, California has lost jobs in the industry every month.”