It’s no secret that California is expensive. Californians pay more than most for electricity, gas and rent, and even eggs cost more here.

Now fast food will likely be added to that list, as a $20 minimum wage mandate goes into effect this week for employees of major restaurant chains, including Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Starbucks and many others.

The new industry-specific minimum wage could attract half a million fast-food restaurants in California

lift workers out of poverty, but could also add an additional cost item for lower costs

–

income residents, as some business owners have already said they are raising prices to meet the mandate.

If it’s for 50 cents, I’d still come, said Ashley Ollarsaba, a Los Angeles mother of five, about possible price increases as she ate an ice cream cone at a McDonalds in Carthay Square on Monday. If it’s for a few dollars more, I don’t know.

The fast-food wage law comes into effect as the state Legislature debates how to reduce Californians’ notoriously high electric bills and deal with an insurance crisis that is raising costs for many homeowners.

Taken together, these issues highlight a challenge the state faces in achieving Democrats’ progressive policy goals, such as curbing climate change and improving conditions for low-wage workers: Someone has to pay for them.

And

that is often disappointing

the consumer.

What everyone struggles with is the difference between what they ideally want and what some of that means for their wallet. It’s a dilemma, says Mark Baldassare, survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California, an independent research firm.

We know the polls show people want better wages,” he said. “But on the other hand, we know that not everyone may be comfortable with what that could mean for them when they look at their credit card bill.

Baldassare said policy decisions by Democrats who control the Capitol are now receiving more attention because Californians are very nervous about their finances.

Even as economists reiterate that pandemic-fueled inflation is calming, voters are still deeply frustrated by the costs. These national concerns are amplified in California, where residents have been paying out more than most other Americans long before the new cost increases.

Economic concerns were top priorities for Californians when the Public Policy Institute surveyed adult residents in February. One in five Californians said this is the most important category of issues for the Democratic Administration. What Gavin Newsom and the Legislature had to work on in 2024 were jobs, the economy and inflation.

Supporters of the fast-food wage requirement, including the state’s powerful labor unions, rushed this week to assure customers that any price increases they saw were the choice of wealthy companies and not required by the new law.

The Service Employees International Union, which pushed for a pay increase for fast food, points this out

S

to research that shows that wage increases are actually good for companies and stimulate the economy.

“Immediately

10-

cent more on a burger, consumers will say, “Oh boy, $5.10 instead of $5.” But they are not going to change their behavior,” said Michael Reich, professor of economics and chairman of the Center on Wage and Employment.

DynamicsEconomics

at UC Berkeley, said at a

news

conference organized with SEIU.

It’s still largely unclear how much restaurant prices will rise, but Republicans have used the cost panic to portray themselves as more sympathetic to the concerns of ordinary Californians in a state where

the party is missing

enough power to shape policy.

It is already too difficult for families to afford this state, said Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa), who opposed the fast.

–

minimum wage for food. What we need to do is work to lower the cost of living and increase opportunities for growth, not the other way around.

Republicans and some Democrats found rare common cause when they objected to a recent proposal to raise electricity rates, a signal that concerns about costs cross party lines.

Some Democrats in the House abandoned their previous support for an income-based plan to calculate how much people should pay for electricity after hearing from outraged middle-class voters fed up with skyrocketing energy bills and being hit by new cost increases. The consequences turned out not to be worth it for those Democrats

; ultimately siding with their cost-conscious voters over some environmentalists who wanted to charge some residents more for electricity as part of a complex proposal intended to fund upgrades to prevent wildfires and transition to clean energy. even environmentalists expressed concern that such programs are intended to encourage Californians to use less energy.

“There has been a conscious effort from the start to ensure that there are no real price shocks. …and to soften that blow,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program of

Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment

. “You basically have to go as fast as the public can accept it.”

While California Democrats find themselves in the unusual position of defending themselves while continuing to push for liberal ideals, they argue that some of their policies are a response to the state’s affordability crises, not worsening them.

State Senator

Mara

Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), who wrote the law

to create

a minimum wage

healthcare

workers also in the throes of cost debates, said she won’t let opponents cloud Democrats’ fight for a “living wage” in a state home to some of the most expensive cities in the world.

And the big one fast

–

food chains can afford it, she said.

“This is basically a solution in response to the fact that everything is becoming more expensive,” Durazo said, noting that food costs had risen before the wage standard went into effect. “The problem is not that workers get better wages. “

Ollarsaba, the mother of five who had lunch at McDonald’s this week, said she supports the new law that increases workers’ wages, even if it means small price increases are in store. She said she empathizes with workers who serve burgers and fries for minimum wage: “I think they work very hard for it.”