Chef Andrew Gruel Blasts Democrat Politician Calling for $50 Minimum Wage

Co-Founder and Executive Chef of Slapfish restaurant Andrew Gruel at the Huntington Beach location, Calif., on June 7, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Andrew Gruel has weighed in on Rep. Barbara Lee’s (D-Calif.) recent comment about raising the federal minimum wage to $50 per hour—a move the celebrity chef said would “completely decimate every single business in the state of California.”

The former mayor of Oakland discussed her proposal during a Feb. 12 debate for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) vacant seat in the Senate. Ms. Feinstein died last September after serving in the Senate for over 30 years. Before her death, Ms. Feinstein had announced that she would not be running for reelection in 2024.

When asked how a $50 minimum wage could be economically sustainable for small businesses operating in the state, Ms. Lee mentioned her background of owning and running a small business for 11 years. She also claimed to have helped create “hundreds of jobs” during her career.

“I know what worker productivity means and that means that you have to make sure that your employees are taken care of and have a living wage,” she said. “$104,000 for a family of one [is] barely enough to get by, low income because of the affordability crisis. And so just do the math.”

Mr. Gruel was quick to lambast Ms. Lee’s proposal, saying it would cause “every single restaurant [to] close overnight,” during an appearance on Fox Business. He also questioned why a $50 minimum wage hadn’t already been implemented for government jobs, such as for DMV workers or firefighters employed by the state. “[B]ecause they can’t,” he said. “Because they can’t afford it.”

“If this is about actually putting more money in the pockets of the workers, why don’t you just cut payroll taxes so that people are taking more money home?” he queried. “Because they can’t; because they can’t afford it.”

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The Epoch Times reached out to Rep. Lee’s office for comment.

Minimum Wage Hike

Mr. Gruel—who helms several California-based restaurants, including Calico Fish House in Huntington Beach and Tustin’s Big Parm—shared similar sentiments during a recent appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle.”

The television personality claimed Ms. Lee was merely trying to gain public favor in a desperate bid for votes in the upcoming election.

“This is going to lead to upward pressure on all wages,” he said. “It’s going to totally inflate the entire economy of California—which is already there—and there will be no independent businesses in California.”

“One hundred percent of the businesses will be run by the state and they will rely on the state,” he continued. “And it’s communism-lite.”

Last fall, Mr. Gruel told Fox News that he refused to open any more restaurants in the state, largely due to the sheer increase in crime as well as the exorbitant tax rates. “Doing business in California is like gambling in a haunted casino,” he said. “[O]ur businesses are broken into left and right.”

California’s violent crime rate increased in 2022, up by 13.5 percent from its pre-pandemic rate of 436 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2019, per the Public Policy Institute of California.

California Minimum Wage

California was one of 22 states to raise its minimum wage in 2024, per USA Today. In September of last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation increasing the minimum wage to $20 per hour for the state’s more than 500,000 fast-food employees. The law goes into effect on April 1.

The average hourly wage for fast-food employees was previously $16.21. In a statement, Mr. Newsom said the minimum wage increase would give fast-food workers a “stronger seat at the table.”

Ms. Lee’s current minimum wage proposal of $50 per hour is about seven times the current national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Katie Porter (D-Calif.)—who are also vying for a seat in the marquee congressional race—have floated minimum wages ranging between $20 and $25 per hour. However, Republican candidate Steve Garvey, a former Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, said the “minimum wage is where it is and should be.”

“If you look at what California has done to fast food franchises right now, increasing the minimum wage to $20 and what’s going to happen—that’s going to increase costs for hardworking Californians to go to a franchise,” he explained during the debate. “Instead of a Big Mac for $9, it is going to be $15,” he said.

Mr. Gruel agreed. “Let’s just kinda break it down, real simple math,” he told Ms. Ingraham. “So if I run 30 percent food cost and 30 percent labor cost and now I double that to 60, and I’m netting 10 percent, which is average for a restaurant, now I’m negative 20 percent.”

“To make up for that—to try to break even and stay alive—I’m gonna have to increase my costs by 4 or 5x [sic],” he continued. “So a steak in California would cost roughly $300 at a $50 minimum wage.”