This type of story will become increasingly commonplace in the near future now that California’s new onerous minimum wage law for fast food workers took effect Monday. Many will say, “Who cares what happens in Krazy California?” and I will remind you as I always do that what starts here more often than not spreads across the country. Especially when we have a Democrat president, as we do now, who drools over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s socialist maneuverings and tries to copy them whenever he can.

AB 1228, signed by Newsom in September 2023, requires a $20 minimum wage for restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide—except, inexplicably—those that make and sell their own bread. Um, what?

Already, fast food prices are skyrocketing around the Golden State, workers are being laid off, and locations are being closed. All in the name of helping the little guy.

Who could have predicted:

Like AB5, CA's Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Results in Layoffs, Closures, and Higher Prices

CA Corruption: Negotiators of Minimum Wage Law With Questionable Panera Bread Carveout Signed NDAs

California Pizza Hut Operators Laying off All Delivery Drivers Due to Mandated Wage Increase

But Newsom in his high-minded authoritarianism doesn’t care about Monica Navarro, who was until very recently an assistant general manager at Fosters Freeze in Lemoore and came back from Easter Sunday weekend only to find she was suddenly unemployed.

When making their way to work Monday morning, Navarro and her team learned upon arrival that the restaurant owner had made the decision to close its doors for good. The owner, Loren Wright, told local Fox affiliate KMPH that this was the "last thing" they wanted to do, but knew by Friday night the business likely wouldn’t be able to absorb the wage hike and didn’t "want to ruin their Easter Sunday."

"It would have been nice to have a notice, so we could go get some applications [out], I could prepare them," she continued. "The best I can do is honestly give them some references."

Layoffs in California because of new $20 Gavin Newsom minimum wage law. “It would have been nice to have a notice, so we could go get some applications [out], I could prepare them," she continued. "The best I can do is honestly give them some references." - Monica Navarro pic.twitter.com/x8h6L9JCAB

— Noble Road (@noble_road) April 4, 2024

The poor workers literally thought it was an April Fools' Joke:

"Two of my coworkers were actually going in to clock-in for the morning. And right after that, that's when I got a phone call that we were closing. So they found out right as they were about to clock-in for the day," Navarro recalled.

"We had gotten a text in the group chat that we were shutting down, and I completely thought it was an April Fool's joke," one of Navarro’s colleagues also told KMPH.

The whole point of the law ostensibly was to make lives easier for fast food workers by helping them financially. (The real reason, of course, is that Newsom wanted to kowtow as he always does to California’s powerful unions, but that’s another story.) But how does a minimum wage law help when many people like Navarro suddenly find themselves on the unemployment line?

"From the people that I spoke to, my employees, we would have rather stayed at the wage that we did have before, just because now we don't have a job," Navarro said. "And those who are still working in the areas around us that went up to $20 an hour, they got their hours severely cut. And it's a lot less people working on shifts. So their jobs got a lot more difficult."

As my colleague Jennifer Oliver O’Connell recently wrote, “Good job, California.”

Employees at Fosters Freeze in Lemoore are out of a job
Assist General Manager Monica Navarro says she was called Monday morning by her boss who was at the restaurant to open, only to find the locks were being changed. Guess that $20/hour pay sucks now eh? https://t.co/5vndItmyTN

— SassyClassySmartAssy🧜‍♀️Redheaded 🇺🇸Mermaid🚒🚔 (@Mischievousliz) April 2, 2024