Although people eat Dunkin’ or enjoy Happy Meals, America has a long history of underpaying the fast-food workers who produce and serve iconic staples of the American diet. But for some employees at Louisiana chicken chain Raising Cane’s, the paychecks are no longer so low or even paltry.
Changes in wages in the industry are not necessarily the product of sudden generosity or a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future. Rather, it’s largely due to California’s new law setting a minimum wage of $20 an hour for fast-food workers, higher than the $16 an hour minimum wage for other industries in the state.
As 27-year-old Monique Pizano explains, it all means some top front-line employees are making six-figure salaries this wall street journal. Factoring in potential bonuses and branch location, franchise general managers can earn up to $174,000 per year.
Pisano, who has been a manager at the chain for three years, reportedly saw her base salary increase from $79,000 to $85,000 in March. Magazine. She’s also eligible for monthly bonuses of up to $7,500 if certain goals are met – or $175,000 per year in the best-case scenario.
AJ Kumaran, Raising Cane’s CEO and COO, said in a statement that while Cane’s base salary increase coincides with California’s FAST Act, “we had already invested in Crew’s wages ahead of this change.” . wealth, adding that employees’ hourly wages have increased by $4 over the past few years. Kumaran recently pointed out that a less talked about aspect of the law is that annual salaries for full-time managers are increased to at least $83,200 (at Cane’s, the standard salary increase is $84,000, plus bonuses, Kumaran said).
“Through this initiative, all of our payroll managers have received a raise of approximately 10 to 20 percent, depending on their current level of management,” he said, calling it a “huge win for people.” ” helps companies attract future employees. Kumaran said that while the law has had a “huge impact” on the chain, Cane has made up for it by raising prices by about 7%, he told CNBC.
Pisano said the salary “changed my family’s life”, She added that she could go to Japan for her honeymoon and save up for a down payment on a house. It’s no easy task, as Pisano is constantly on the move, averaging 15,000 steps in 10 hours a day, and delivering $9 million worth of food every year. Magazine.
The changing tide among workers in the fast-food industry has been around for a long time. Although the cost of living has soared in recent years, the federal minimum wage has not increased since 2009 and has remained as low as $7.25 an hour. According to one calculation, the minimum wage has not been worth so little since the mid-1950s, adjusted for inflation. Fast-food workers, who tend to earn the lowest wages as the restaurant and hotel industry struggles to recover after the pandemic, have gained some income recently due to retention issues. Immediately after the lockdown, the restaurant industry was hemorrhaging money—losing 6 million workers between March and April 2020.
Chains scrambled to eventually pay up, with Taco Bell or Chipotle offering $100,000 a year to managers and In-N-Out $180,000 a year. This represents a dramatic change in the way these workers are compensated compared to a decade ago. A 2014 report found that one in five households with someone working at a fast food company had an income below the poverty line.
Of course, hourly wages in states other than California still often fall below a living wage. But California’s new law sets the stage for a new era for employees.
“What’s happening in California’s fast-food restaurants may not end here,” Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Estelle Ou noted.
As for Raising Cane’s, CEO Kumaran told CNBC that the company has done well in enforcing pay adjustments due to its cult following willing to pay higher prices for its products. Kumaran told Yahoo Finance that last year, the company raised average wages to $19.50 an hour. “Once you take care of people, the business will pay for itself,” he said. Kumaran’s words were echoed today when he pointed out that since the wage increase, the team’s retention rate has been almost positive and “turnover has increased by 10%”.
