California’s Local Restaurant Owners are Feeling the Squeeze

After immigrating to the U.S., I worked tirelessly to create opportunities for my family. I invested my life savings into buying a local restaurant, hoping to build a future they could one day continue. But with the Fast Food Council considering another wage increase, everything I’ve worked for is hanging by a thread. This isn’t just about my business—it’s about the livelihoods of my employees and the future my family has worked so hard to build.

As a small business owner and former teacher, I’ve dedicated my career to creating opportunities—first for students and now for my employees. But with another wage hike on the table, I find myself questioning whether I should have gone into this industry at all. The Fast Food Council should reject additional wage hikes so local restaurants like mine have a fighting chance to survive and keep supporting our communities.

As a veteran and small business owner, I take pride in providing for my team and my community, but if the Fast Food Council raises wages again, I’ll have no choice but to cut hours and raise prices—the last thing I want to do. Every day, I worry about the livelihoods of my employees and the future of the business we’ve built together.

As a young Latino business owner, I worked hard to beat the odds and achieve my dream of owning a small business. Now, the $20 minimum wage—a 25% hike—is jeopardizing the employer-provided benefits my staff rely on. Another increase wouldn’t just hurt single-unit owners like me—it would make it impossible to continue offering these supplemental benefits and hurt the very employees it’s meant to help.

Since the recent wage hike, I’ve had to raise prices by 25% and cut employee hours just to keep things going. If costs go up any further, I may not be able to stay open at all. What’s most painful is that I’ve had to step back from the community work I used to be so proud of—national charity campaigns, local initiatives—because every dollar now goes toward just staying afloat. I’ve poured decades into these restaurants, but I’m not sure how much longer I can hold on.

As a second-generation franchisee, my family has spent years building this small business. But with costs already skyrocketing, due largely to the $20/hr minimum wage, another wage increase could be our breaking point. With nearly 60% of California restaurants owned by people of color and 50% owned by women, an additional wage increase that singles out local restaurants would further marginalize the communities we should be uplifting.

As a Latino immigrant, I worked my way up from making sandwiches to owning my own restaurant. But the 25% wage hike has made it nearly impossible to survive—I’ve had to cut employee hours, raise prices, and turn down opportunities to grow. The Fast Food Council should not make a bad problem even worse.

I’ve always believed in creating jobs and building something that supports my family and community. But since the wage hike, I’ve been working 70 extra hours a week just to keep the doors open. I’ve raised prices slightly, but with rising costs in food, utilities, and everything else, I may have to do more—and that’s not fair to my customers. I’ve already dipped into my savings to keep things going. If this continues, I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.

My sister and I are proud to be family business owners. We are especially proud to lead an organization predominantly led by women - 80% of our senior leadership team is made up of women. ALL OF THEM are women of color! It’s not often that sisters can combine forces to continue the legacy of their parents - together, harmoniously and successfully. But, we are doing it! Our ability to continue to do so means we need balanced laws that address both the needs of our employees to live and thrive, and our business’s need to be sustainable and profitable. Legislation that does the opposite directly threatens our ability to give our employees as many hours and benefits as we currently do, and to support our communities through donation of our time, talent and treasure.

As a local restaurant owner, I’ve struggled to grapple with the recent wage increase, which has made it harder to stay ahead. I’ve had to raise prices and reduce hours across all my locations just to keep them open. I had plans to expand across the Bay Area, but if more costly legislation continues to hit California, I’m not sure that’s going to be possible.