Exclusive | Nonprofit accuses UC Berkeley of biased research that downplays damage of Californias $20 minimum wage

A UC Berkeley research group was accused of bias in downplaying the crippling effects of California’s $20 minimum wage on the state’s fast food industry.In a report released late September, UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that Gov.Gavin Newsom’s $20 minimum wage for fast-food employees – which took effect in April – raised wages without significant job losses or menu price hikes.But the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative think tank, called out the IRLE over its “predetermined conclusions.”“These activist academics ignore the best available data for methods that prove their predetermined conclusions,” EPI research director Rebekah Paxton told The Post in a statement.

“Biased Berkeley has time and time again been debunked for its bias in favor of minimum wage hikes and the union dollars they receive.This most recent study further degrades their credibility in assessing policy impacts.”The IRLE’s report claimed Newsom’s $20 minimum wage law raised average hourly pay by 18% on average without leading to feared job cuts or menu price hikes.

Popular menu items rose in price by 3.7%, or an increase of just 15 cents for a $4 hamburger, the researchers claimed.The UC Berkeley study analyzed UberEats data from the two weeks before and two weeks after the minimum wage law took effect on April 1.But restaurants began hiking menu prices as early as November 2023, when Newsom signed the new minimum wage into law, the EPI argued.The nonprofit pointed to other studies of core menu price items that showed higher increases — including Burger King’s Big Fish meal surging 53% in California, as The Post previously reported.The IRLE also found California’s fast food industry did not suffer job losses as a result of the hefty minimum wage – but the EPI said this is because the research center, along with Newsom, used inaccurate federal data.IRLE researchers, and Newsom, used non-seasonally adjusted federa...