The Headhunters, LLC’s Post

When paying more is better for business... "When employers have too much power in the labor market, they can (and do) pay workers considerably less. Workers take the low-paid jobs, but those artificially low wages lead workers to quit when they find better-paying options. Maintaining staffing levels becomes more difficult for employers.  By raising pay to meet the higher minimums, fast food restaurants are better able to attract workers to fill the vacant jobs. And those workers stay longer." https://lnkd.in/gXJqYSBZ #minimumwage #restaurantworkers #restaurantnews #restaurants #qsr #labour CalMatters

No one is talking about what $20 an hour for fast food workers causes for the people above the entry level job and other businesses. 1. It causes compaction of wages. This means that those that were making $20 an hour as a manager or supervisor within fast food are now going to making the same. In turn it is not just the entry level the owner has to pay more, it is the position above that. 2. Now other business may need to increase their wages because someone working in fast food may make more than an entry level position for someone that had a bachelor's or masters. 3. The minimum wage for all other positions in California is $16 an hour. Basically we are telling everyone else they are not worth getting the $20 an hour? 4. Entry level positions are created and the value of those has now been diminished. The message is mangled no matter where you stand on this issue. When these decisions are made the focus gets put in one classification and the impact of the decision is much much bigger then that one focus. We need big picture thinkers. High road leaders that make the best decisions for everyone not just a small few. If an employer were to isolate a small classification of people they would be seen as discriminatory, so when is this $20 an hour for one small group not the same? #badleaders #baddecisions #humanresources https://lnkd.in/gSz9rAne

Had several folks DM me over the weekend highlighting a trade association's claim that 10,000 fast food jobs have been lost due to California's new $20 / hour minimum wage. I looked at the claim and found it to be complete nonsense. Let's break it down: 1️⃣ The claim seems to stem from a The Hoover Institution, Stanford University spitball session based on a The Wall Street Journal article in March and then amplified by the New York Post last week. 2️⃣ The 10k job loss claim is based on a subset of Bureau of Labor Statistics data from September of last year (when the law was passed but not yet enacted) through January of 2024. If you look at those raw numbers it does appear that about 10k jobs were lost. There's just one MASSIVE problem with this approach. 3️⃣ BLS data does not adjust for seasonality. And restaurants have a HUGE degree of seasonality. So when you look back over decades you typically see restaurants reducing staff following the summer rush because people go back to school, summer vacations are over and travel slows, and some restaurants are only open part of the year. So without looking at seasonally adjusted data you can make spurious claims of job loss because you are being dishonest about the actual data and how the industry functions. 4️⃣ To get a more accurate picture one should look at year over year data, seasonally adjusted, to get a better understanding of the potential effects of something like a minimum wage adjustment in an industry with known seasonality. 5️⃣ When you look at seasonally adjusted year over year data in the fast food industry in California from September of 2023 through April of 2024 (the most recent available data) you see a VERY different picture: - September 2023 (vs 2022): +5,900 jobs - October 2023: +9,100 jobs - November 2023: +11,100 jobs - December 2023: +9,600 jobs - January 2024 (vs 2023): +9,900 jobs - February 2024: +7,600 jobs - March 2024: +4,100 jobs - April 2024: +6,600 jobs 6️⃣ Ultimately, it's simply not true that the fast food industry in California has slashed jobs since last September. In fact, the month in which the law took effect (April 2024) 6,600 jobs were added on a year over year basis. Will this trend continue? I don't know. But I do know that bombastic claims of massive job loss are, at this point, not accurate. #minimumwage #finhealth #livingwage #fastfood #data #econ101

Curious about the latest in the restaurant industry? We've got the answers! 🔹 Job Market Trends: Is the restaurant industry adding or shedding jobs? Dive into the latest employment trends and find out how the sector is evolving. 📈 🔹 Sustainability Moves: Guess which quick-service restaurant is venturing into solar energy? 🌞 🔹 Pay Raises for Tipped Workers: Big cities continue to support restaurant workers with significant pay boosts. For instance, tipped workers in Chicago just saw their minimum wage increase to $11.02 per hour from $9.48, thanks to a new ordinance. Over the next five years, this wage will keep rising by 8% annually until it matches the city's standard minimum wage. 💵 Stay informed and see how these changes are shaping the foodservice landscape! 👉 Read more about these updates and more! #FoodserviceNews #RestaurantIndustry #JobTrends #Sustainability #EmployeeWages #Chicago https://lnkd.in/gDqEnDvs

As restaurant industry employment levels stabilize at pre-COVID levels, volatility in hiring and retention is slowing -- especially for lower wage workers. See the latest statistics. Creating a more sustainable and attractive workplace for our employees is vital.

Wait: Is The Data Skewed On How $20 Per Hour Fast Food Wages Are Affecting Restaurants? This comes courtesy of Yahoo! Finance and The LA Times: "A full-page ad recently placed in USA Today by the California Business and Industrial Alliance asserted that nearly 10,000 fast-food jobs had been lost in the state since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law in September. The ad listed a dozen chains, from Pizza Hut to Cinnabon, whose local #franchisees had cut employment or raised prices, or are considering taking those steps. According to the ad, the chains were 'victims of Newsom's minimum wage,' which increased the minimum wage in fast food to $20 from $16, starting April 1." But Tom Manzo, a business lobbyist, said the statistics are misleading: "Here's something you might want to know about this claim. It's baloney, sliced thick. In fact, from September through January, the period covered by the ad, fast-food employment in California has gone up, as tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve. The claim that it has fallen represents a flagrant misrepresentation of government employment figures." He goes on: "Something else the ad doesn't tell you is that after January, fast-food employment continued to rise. As of April, employment in the limited-service restaurant sector that includes fast-food establishments was higher by nearly 7,000 jobs than it was in April 2023, months before Newsom signed the minimum wage bill." You can find the rest of the article on Yahoo. https://lnkd.in/eS-yks9c And here's what the CEO of American QSR said about about fast food wages in California, and how the restaurant industry is dealing with them:  https://lnkd.in/eZC2ykn3 #fastfood #wages

Survey results are in! We closed our data poll on what region of the U.S. has the highest hourly wage for fast food workers.... The West wins by a landslide! The data below reflects typical hourly wages for openings throughout Q1 2024. California instituted a mandated $20/hour for their fast food workers on April 1st, and our data shows employers got ahead of that law already between January to March. The Northeast had the biggest pay differential of $4 between team members and managers, with the South offering the lowest national hourly wage for both positions. We also looked at the applicant-to-opening ratio for these regions and found the West drew in the most fast food applications during the period, suggesting that wage is a very key factor in attracting applicants. Be sure to check out our Q1 Fast Food Insights report when it's released next week! #frontlineworkers #fastfood #hourlypay

How do employers view the findings of a study from the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, which suggests that raising the minimum wage for fast food workers in California to $20 would not significantly affect employment levels in the sector? This study aligns with the arguments of workers' rights advocates who have been campaigning for an industry-specific wage increase to ensure fair pay in a crucial segment of the state's economy. Despite restaurant operators' initial concerns over possible job reductions and decreased profits, the research proposes that the fast food industry could accommodate the increased wages through slight price adjustments and enhancing operational efficiencies to counterbalance the rise in labor expenses. Given these changes, hiring managers and employers in the fast food industry are likely to re-assess their staffing strategies, exploring the potential benefits of longer-term employment relationships and reduced staff turnover. Engagement with trained and committed staffing partners like Ascension employment can provide valuable support in this evolving environment, easing recruitment pressures and ensuring a prompt, efficient response to staffing needs. #TalentAcquisition #StaffingSolutions #Recruitment #AscensionEmployment

📌 Experts say it’s still too early to tell the long-term impact of the wage hike on fast food restaurants and whether there will be widespread layoffs and closures. Past wage increases have not necessarily led to job losses. When California and New York nearly doubled their minimum wage previously to $15 compared to the federal level of $7.25 per hour, job growth continued, according to a University of California, Berkeley study. 📌So far, the industry has continued to show job growth. In the first two months after the law passed April 1, the industry gained 8,000 jobs, compared to the same period in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No figures were available yet for June. 📌 Joseph Bryant, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which pushed for the raise, said the industry has not only added jobs under the new law but “multiple franchisees have also noted that the higher wage is already attracting better job candidates, thus reducing turnover.”

In restaurants, turnover is down, employment is steady and wage growth is moderate. Taken together, these indicators from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the restaurant labor market is near pre-pandemic dynamics.