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Full-Page Ad Slams First Birthday of California’s “Crappiest Law”: Full-page ad in USA Today calls out Newsom’s $20 fast food wage law for “flushing” 16,000 jobs away
April 2025
Arlington, VA – Today, on the first “birthday” of the implementation of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage law, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is running a full-page ad in the California statewide edition of USA Today showcasing the detrimental impacts the wage hikes have had on the state. The ad highlights the 16,000 fast food jobs that have been “flushed away” due to the minimum wage… -
NEW DATA: Staggering 16,000 Jobs Lost Under Newsom’s $20 Fast Food Wage Law: Brand new quarterly data shows the state is shedding jobs at an alarming rate.
March 2025
Arlington, VA – Today, new analysis from the Employment Policies Institute of quarterly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that California has lost as many as 16,000 jobs since the state’s $20 fast food minimum wage law was signed in September 2023. (The state is down nearly 14,000 jobs since the law officially took effect in April 2024.) The data includes mandatory reporting from all… -
New SEIU-Funded Report Concedes $20 Wage Law Caused Job Losses
February 2025
Arlington, VA – Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) pointed to growing evidence that California’s $20 minimum wage law has cost jobs. This time, the evidence comes from an unexpected source: Researchers funded by the same union behind the $20 policy. EPI has been a leading voice on the consequences of this law, releasing multiple reports based on government data that show the state’s $20 minimum wage… -
Initiative 82 Backfired On Workers, New Study Shows
January 2025
Arlington, VA – Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released a new study examining the impacts on DC restaurants of Initiative 82–a ballot measure that would phase out the tip credit for restaurant workers by 2027. The study shows that DC full-service restaurants have lost as many as 4,000 jobs since the implementation of I-82, and 70% of restaurants have cut hours, laid off staff, or stopped… -
New Policy Brief Proves California’s $20 Fast Food Wage is Costing Jobs, Raising Prices: The brief highlights errors in UC-Berkeley’s pro-wage hike study and presents new evidence showing the net negative effect of the $20 minimum wage.
November 2024
Arlington, VA – Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released a new policy brief that systematically debunks arguments in a recent report from UC-Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE). The EPI policy brief presents a multitude of evidence showing the negative impact of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage, right before California tallies votes for another statewide wage hike from $16 to $18 per hour. The… -
New Study Shows Tipped Wage Hikes Don’t Help Minorities, Women: The new study reveals that tip credit elimination increases the wage gap for minorities, and does not increase weekly earnings for women or minorities.
September 2024
Arlington, VA – Today, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released a new study conducted by University of California-Irvine economists Dr. David Neumark and Emma Wohl, which examines how increasing the tipped minimum wage affects earnings gaps for restaurant workers. While anti-tip credit activists claim eliminating the current tip credit system would reduce inequities faced by women and minority workers, the study finds tipped wage hikes have no…