How a Minimum-Wage Increase Is Being Felt in a Low-Wage City – By Sydney Ember (New York Times) / Feb 15 2021
Even before the pandemic, Elsa Rodriguez Killion realized that Casa Corona, her restaurant in Fresno, California, was going to have to change with the times.
She spent money on digital marketing. She invested in technology that enabled online orders for dishes like the restaurant’s signature chile verde. And there was something else she had to keep up with: California’s rising minimum wage.
The minimum rose to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, the fifth annual increase under a 2016 law. It is set to reach $15 for most employers by next year. With price increases, Rodriguez Killion was able to absorb some of the added payroll expense. But she also cut more than 20% of the 160 jobs at her restaurant’s two locations in the last five years, not including those lost because of the pandemic.
