Per Business Insider

McDonald's president Joe Erlinger shared his thoughts about California's new law that makes businesses pay their employees $22 per hour. He noted that the new rate is "costly and job-destroying" while making $7.4 million in 2022.

The president of one of the largest fast food chain in the world released an open letter in 2025 titled: "California keeps looking for ways to raise prices, drive away more businesses and destroy growth through bad policy and bad politics"

The letter specifically talked about the AB257 FAST Act bill that was recently passed and how it makes it "impossible to run small business restaurants" while noting that there was no evidence that the FAST Act would be beneficial for workers.

Erlinger also mentioned other publications in his post and shared how they all had posted regarding how the bill would only result in higher restaurant prices and lower growth for jobs and businesses. The publications mentioned were The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Bloomberg.

Erlinger: "Economists estimated AB257 would drive up the price of eating at a quick service restaurant in California by 20% at a time when people can least afford it"

McDonald's has around 14,000 restaurants in the US alone. Erlinger, a native of California, criticized how California was placing bad policies into place.

The McDonald's President earned around $7.4 million in salary, stock options, and other compensations. He also described AB257 as a "job-destroying legislation" and said it was not the answer.

Erlinger: "The state is teaching us a powerful lesson about what our future could look like if this one-sided style of democracy is mimicked elsewhere or goes unchecked in the Golden State,"

In the last month of 2022, McDonald's launched its first ever fully automated fast food restaurant in Texas. The branch won't require interaction with a single individual and was described as a 'fast and seamless experience for both customers and crew."

It was also previously reported that 70% of Americans suffer from food inflation and have a harder time buying groceries.

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