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--:-- John Bickley: Fast food workers in California are set to earn $20 an hour starting Monday, as some employers announce layoffs in anticipation. People are going to get more money, but on the other hand, everything's going to go up for everyone as well. Why are critics saying this will force franchises out of the Golden State?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's March 30th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Open prostitution and illegal street markets are plaguing several neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens. Residents say their Congresswoman AOC is MIA. She doesn't come and campaign on this side of things. She likes to stay on the nicer side of town. You'll never see her stop in on one of our shops here. She's just never around.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a new hate crime law takes effect in Scotland, threatening free speech and even comedians who don't conform. We've said from the outset this law is a disaster in the making. It could result in the public being criminalized for no good reason.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: California is raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour on April 1st. California already had a $16 an hour minimum wage, but it's set to jump by 25% following an agreement between labor unions and restaurant groups. Here to discuss the latest development is Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: So California will soon have the highest fast food worker wage in the nation at $20 per hour. The only exception is a small city outside of Seattle called Tukwila. They mandate a minimum wage of $20.29. The idea behind this is pretty simple. Forcing businesses to pay workers more is supposed to help workers.
--:-- John Bickley: California Governor Gavin Newsom championed the measure, calling it nation-leading. Here he is giving remarks before signing the bill.
--:-- [Clip of Gavin Newsom's speech plays]
--:-- Ash Short: This is a big deal. $20 an hour. 80% of the workforce. There's a lot of mythology about fast food. You know, Johnny used to learn the value of hard work. You know, he'd work a few hours in his first job. That's not the case, folks. That's a romanticized version of a world that doesn't exist.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, we think of fast food restaurants as big corporations, McDonald's, Chipotle, Starbucks, but we forget that many of the actual stores are small franchise businesses run by people in the community. They operate on a thin margin. So increasing wages, especially by such a huge jump, means they need to cut costs somewhere.
--:-- Ash Short: And that almost always involves laying off the very employees as minimum wage laws are designed to help or by cutting their restaurant owners also end up having to raise their prices which frustrates consumers and leads to fewer customers Ultimately it sometimes even results in closing shop altogether. And some employees in California have already been laid off in anticipation of the new minimum wage.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Pizza Hut and West Coast Pizza Parlor Roundtable Pizza have said they plan to cut more than 1,200 delivery drivers in the next year. And Pizza Hut has already sent notices to employees who have been laid off or had their hours reduced.
--:-- Ash Short: So if this is such a predictable sequence of events, why does California and these other cities keep hiking wages more? Well, it's a popular promise to make on the campaign trail. And the increase does help those who manage to keep their hours and their jobs. But the more these wages increase, the more even those workers fear losing what they've gained.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One fast food employee, Josue Reyes, told the New York Times that while the increases have helped him over the years, he worries that continued increases will lead to it becoming more difficult to get a fast food job and to keep it.
--:-- Ash Short: Now, when an entry-level job, and that's what fast food jobs are, is forced to provide higher wages, those jobs become more valuable. So applicants must be more qualified and competition for those jobs becomes stronger. That makes it really hard for younger and less experienced workers to break into the workforce.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It ends up freezing out the people who are the lowest on the unemployment ladder. So at a bare minimum, the wage increases create an environment of winners and losers. Right, but far more potential losers.
--:-- Ash Short: Jamie Bynum, who owns a franchise of Dickie's Barbecue Pit in California, told The Times that he's had to raise prices along with the increased minimum wage and that a baked potato used to cost $8 when he opened the restaurant 10 years ago, but now costs nearly $20 for a baked potato.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the kicker is that these fast food restaurants are also supposed to be affordable to these low-wage workers, but now it's common to spend more than $20 on a fast meal on a lunch break. And Bynum isn't some wealthy business owner. Restaurants regularly operate on razor-thin margins.
--:-- Ash Short: It's people like him that take the hit, not the corporations that actually own Dickies or McDonald's or any other chain restaurant. According to Matt Haller, the president and CEO of the International Franchise Association, franchisees could end up being the next cohort of people to flee California.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what about automation? Is that going to be the next trend for these businesses?
--:-- Ash Short: Absolutely. When you have to pay an employee $15, $17, or $20 an hour to work a cash register, becomes more cost-effective to put in an automated kiosk where people can order themselves. While it doesn't look like robots will be replacing sandwich makers anytime soon, it's not such a crazy notion that in the future, most, if not all of these workers will be replaced by robots if the technology becomes the cheaper option.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, ordering on an iPad is such a pain. You can't ask questions, make alterations, and then they ask you for a tip. Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Ash Short: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A once vibrant Queens neighborhood in New York has been taken over by flea markets and prostitution. Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here with the details.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Sure. So the conditions in three Queens neighborhoods, which are currently represented by Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have really deteriorated according to new videos. The Northwest Queens neighborhoods of Corona, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst have become overrun with illegal migrants hawking clothes and more troubling prostitution.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To what extent is that happening out in the open?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: It very much out in the open. The New York Post did a deep dive on Corona main strip along Roosevelt Avenue last summer This trip has become known as the Market of Sweethearts for being rife with prostitutes who stand on the street during the day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The prostitutes reportedly solicit men during the day, even as families with children in strollers walk by. As recently as this month, prostitutes were snapped standing outside storefronts soliciting men, the prostitutes also reportedly stand outside supermarkets.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Moms in the neighborhood expressed consternation about the open illegal sex trade at the time, saying the prostitutes recruited local children to hand out their X-rated business cards, some of which included photos of scantily clad women.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The NYPD used to arrest thousands of prostitutes every year, but arrests have dropped below 200 as prosecutors started focusing on brothels instead. In January, police said they shut down 13 massage parlors on the street they said were operating as brothels, but now new ones have cropped up in their place.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Many of the prostitutes in Queens are Asian, but locals are now also noticing new migrants soliciting for sex as well. Well, that's not the only thing being sold on the streets.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Tell us about the illegal markets that have also popped up.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Right. Large piles of clothes for sale sit on the ground, often blocking parts of the sidewalk and trash overflows on street corners. The video shows migrants selling sneakers, pots and pans, toys and picture frames for rock bottom prices, which local shop owners say are undercutting their businesses.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The video was filmed by local resident Ramsey's Frias. We've always had our share of issues, but right now things are just running rampant. It's just way too much prostitution, violent crime, and a lot of illegal street vendors that are just setting up shop and, you know, doing this in a lawless nature.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Frias called it a third world market and claims the migrants steal the items they sell from donation bins or stores. Hispanic residents have also complained about the new migrants bringing crime, Some saying it's no longer safe to walk the streets after dark. Some even say they've been assaulted multiple times.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We should note also, Ocasio-Cortez's 14th congressional district includes parts of both Queens and the Bronx. So what has Ocasio-Cortez said about the video?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Well, the congresswoman accused Republicans of blocking paths to citizenship and work permits so that they can film migrants in their worst moments. She said, what we're seeing here is a result of anti-immigrant policies that deny immigrants proper work permits and vending licenses and drive them to the shadows of undignified conditions.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Frias, who took the video of the migrant flea market, is a former Democrat who is now running for New York State Assembly as a Republican. He said he lives a few blocks away from the street where prostitutes hang out, and he's never seen Ocasio-Cortez campaign in the neighborhood.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: People are frustrated with the way that Democrats have been running things or not running things, I should say. They're just not representing the people. It's just become an issue where we have to step up now. The Republicans have to show a strong force and keep pushing forward.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, very sad for the families that are living there. Mairead, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The front cover of the world's oldest national newspaper, Scotland's Herald, recently sent a stark warning to performers that police have been told to target comedians under a new hate crime law. Here to give us the full story is Sarah Elliott, senior advisor to the Legatum Institute.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Hey, Sarah. So what is Scotland's new hate crime law and does it in fact target entertainers?
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, John. And yes, it does. This worrying development has come from training delivered to law enforcement officers which informed them that under the new hate crime law being implemented by the Scottish National Party material that can be deemed threatening and abusive can be communicated through public performance.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: I will, of course, remind listeners that Scotland plays host to the world's largest comedy and performance festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which sees hundreds of performers gather from around the world. It is worrying if these people are having to self-censor and monitor their art under threat of punishment from an overzealous police force.
--:-- John Bickley: So the key here is that speech during a performance can be criminalized. When is this law coming into force?
--:-- Sarah Elliott: So the Hate and Public Order Act in Scotland, which has been in consideration for over four years, will come into force on April 1st, 2024. The now First Minister of Scotland, Hamza Youssef, pushed this bill through the Scottish Parliament when he was Justice Secretary in 2020, with the bill passing a vote to become an act of Scottish Parliament on April 23, 2021.
--:-- John Bickley: So is there a worry that the law will be applied too loosely here?
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Absolutely. We have examples that people find after similar hate crime laws have been applied in very draconian ways. One famous instance was Mark Meachin, who was fined 800 pounds for filming his dog walking in a way that appeared to be a Nazi march.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the worry here is, with the Scottish government introducing even more restrictive measures on freedom of speech, comedians and performers are going to be scared to perform any material that does not conform to the held beliefs of the governing political party.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: There is also concern over warnings that the Scottish police are recording hate incidents, which, while not serious enough to meet the threshold for criminal proceedings, are still appearing on security checks, which can have negative implications for job applicants. That is a very worrying scenario.
--:-- John Bickley: One's ability to get a job could actually be on the line here. Yes. That's worrying indeed.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Has there been any resistance to these new restrictions?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, thankfully, yes. People from across the political spectrum in media and even in the world of entertainment have pushed back against this new legislation. When it was first being drawn up, it was famously criticized by the comedian Rowan Atkinson, known for playing Mr. Bean. He said such laws risk stifling free expression.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Some fierce critics have included writer and comedian Andrew Doyle and the American podcast host Joe Rogan. Politically, it has been criticised by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who is also concerned it could be used to silence people such as J.K. Rowling.
--:-- John Bickley: So how long will it take before the Hate Crime Act goes the same way as named persons, offensive behaviour at football, gender recognition and form, and every other flawed SMP law?
--:-- Sarah Elliott: So we can hope that with enough public criticism, the government will see the fundamental flaws in bringing in legislation designed to stifle free expression.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it'll be fascinating to see how performers respond to this on the stage. Sarah, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Thank you for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thank you for listening this morning. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
