There has been widespread attention on the state’s new $20 an hour fast food workers minimum wage, effective April 1. The resulting higher food prices, job losses and restaurant closures have been far-reaching. As a Southern California restaurant owner, I’m still trying to figure out how to survive this 25% overnight wage increase.

In January, the statewide Fast Food Council will consider raising wages again. I urge them to reject this additional wage hike.

When I was 11, I immigrated to the United States from Mexico. After high school, I worked at a Subway in Studio City and moved up the ladder. After 15 years of working and saving, my wife and I invested everything to buy our own Subway restaurant in 2002. Franchising helped me beat the odds and achieve small-business ownership.

But now, the climate is too risky for small-business owners like me. I’ve turned down opportunities to open more restaurants in California.

Worse, labor unions are urging the Fast Food Council to raise wages again by 70 cents per hour on Jan. 1. Another wage increase would be disastrous for local restaurant owners, our employees and our customers.

Our small businesses can’t endure more costs. We are not large corporations; we’re family-owned, independent small businesses. Many of us are immigrants, people of color or women operating on razor-thin margins. And we’re hurting.

I’ve had to raise my prices 6% and cut each of my employees’ hours about five hours per week. I used to have up to five employees per shift. Now it’s typically one or two. My wife, daughter and I fill gaps where we can to offset costs.

As someone who has been in their shoes, I value my employees, and it hurts to cut back their hours. But it’s an unfortunate, unintended consequence of this new wage.

With menu prices up, I have fewer customers, and those who come are more frugal. They balk at my higher prices, but I can’t afford to lower them and stay in business.

A recent survey of California franchisees found that a majority (98%) said they raised menu prices due to the wage increase, and 73% reduced staff.

Supporters of the wage increase — like the labor-affiliated UC Labor Centers — have tried to downplay the impacts and disprove what headline after headline says about restaurants shutting down, employee layoffs and hours cut, and consumers facing higher food prices.

They claim minimal price increases and job growth, but their methodology is flawed. For example, their September “report” stated fast food prices only rose 3%. To get such a low number, they cherrypicked just four weeks of data, ignoring the fact that most franchisees raised prices gradually starting months before to avoid customer sticker shock.

Additionally, their unadjusted employment data does not account for regular seasonal increases every summer when kids are out of school, tourism is at its peak, people eat out more and restaurants need extra staff.

The reality is: California lost 4,431 fast food jobs since January, according to seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, food prices at California’s quick-service restaurants have increased by 10.1% overall since September 2023, when the wage increase was signed into law.

Voters just rejected Proposition 32, which would have raised the statewide minimum wage to $18 an hour. The rejection shows that voters understand the correlation between higher wages and higher prices.

Things are already rough for local restaurant owners, our employees and our customers. The Fast Food Council should not make a bad problem even worse.

Angel Mendez owns and operates one Subway franchised restaurant in Burbank.