In a move that should surprise no one familiar with the economic realities of California, In-N-Out Burger, the iconic fast-food chain founded in 1948, is packing its corporate bags and heading east to Tennessee. The reason? The Golden State’s relentless assault on businesses through steep minimum wage mandates that have made operating there not just difficult, but increasingly untenable.
In a recent interview with podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey, In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder didn’t mince words about how the business, its employees, and consumers are being economically mauled by the California government bear.
“Raising a family is not easy here,” she said. “Doing business is not easy here.”
Snyder’s decision to relocate to Tennessee, where the company plans to open a new regional office in Franklin, is a direct response to oppressive California labor laws – statutes that we at MRCTV have been covering.
Starting April 1, 2024, California imposed a $20-per-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers at chains with 60 or more locations nationwide, courtesy of Assembly Bill 1228. Only restaurants within supermarkets, airports, hospitals, universities, traditional bakeries, and family businesses where the owner is hands-on were exempt.
And this imposition by politicians – politicians who claim to be helping “the little guy” but, in fact, are pricing their low skilled labor out of the market – are part of a broader government agenda: California’s general minimum wage jumped to $16.50 per hour on January 1, 2025, with cities like Los Angeles pushing hotel and airport workers to even higher thresholds. Healthcare workers? They’re looking at up to $24 per hour, depending on the facility and region.
In each instance, hubristic politicians have taken it onto themselves to tell others how to run their businesses, taken it onto themselves to tell employees that they can’t take a job for less than a certain amount, and mandated that consumers pay higher prices for what they could have gotten for less.
And In-N-Out isn’t alone. Over the past two years, California has witnessed an exodus of restaurant chains unable to withstand the economic pressure. Cracker Barrel, for instance, shuttered two locations in Northern California. Red Lobster, in the throes of bankruptcy, closed six California outposts as part of a broader purge of over 80 locations nationwide.
As Reason’s Jack Nicastro notes, a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals just how much damage the CA political pythons have wrought:
“…California's fast food employment decreased by 2.64 percent from September 2023 (when Newsom signed the bill into law) to September 2024, while fast food employment elsewhere in the U.S. increased by 0.10 percent over this same period. The paper's economists estimate that the law caused ‘a loss of 18,000 jobs that would have otherwise existed in the absence of the policy.’ This finding is particularly striking considering employment trends in California and the rest of the United States.
The authors note that ‘fast food employment in California had, in fact, grown slightly more than fast food employment in the rest of the United States prior to AB 1228's enactment.’ Taking this into account, the economists estimated that California's fast food industry employment contracted by 3.2 percent relative to fast food employment in the U.S. and by 3.5 percent when only compared to states that did not enact minimum wage increases (which bias the estimate downward). California's fast-food employment shrank ‘even as employment in other sectors of the California economy tracked national trends,’ according to the paper.”
And the California collectivists continue along their path of threats and commands.
The irony here is palpable. California saw multitudes “go west” for the Gold Rush, and the state was integral in starting the fast-food sector.
Now, its political class is driving people away, and low-skilled laborers will have fewer opportunities.
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