(The Center Square) – Blaze Pizza is moving its headquarters from California to Atlanta, a move that will reduce its state corporate tax rate by more than a third.
Blaze said his move is driven by a desire for his “next wave of growth.”
Georgia’s annualized GDP growth was 11.8% in April, while California’s grew 3.8% annualized based on the most recent data from late 2023.
Founded in Southern California, Blaze has approximately ⅓ of its 300+ locations in California.
In a statement, Blaze said its 7,500 restaurant employees would not be affected by the change, and that a handful of non-remote corporate employees are being offered “relocation opportunities.”
Blaze’s move follows Rubio’s announcement that he is closing 48 stores in California, eliminating about 1,250 jobs, and a report from the Hoover Institution finding that California lost nearly 10,000 more fast food jobs after the state’s wage law $20 per hour fast food minimum went into effect last time. to fall.
Today, the California Business and Industrial Alliance took out a full-page ad in USA Today opposing the fast food minimum wage law, with an obituary-style message about the resulting business closures.
Some of the ad’s examples came from Blaze’s pizza competitors, including Mod Pizza, which is closing five of its California stores, Pizza Hut, which is laying off 1,200 delivery drivers, and Round Table Pizza, which has laid off 73 drivers .
“You can’t charge that much for a Big Mac,” CABIA President Tom Manzo told The Center Square. “What business owners are doing is selling out, they’re not expanding in California – they have plans to expand in different states – or they’re going out of business.
On its franchise website, Blaze lists California as a state where it only has “limited availability” as franchises, while other states are marked with “ask today.”
“The biggest joke was that we’re going to give healthcare workers a minimum wage of $25 an hour, and then they have this budget deficit, and then they say ‘We’re not sure the government can pay that.’ Well wait a minute, you can’t afford it, but should business owners do it? Manzo continued.
Last year, California approved a $25 per hour minimum wage for health care, which would begin rolling out at $23 per hour on June 1.
Because the bill would cost the state $4 billion in its first year, and the state faces a $7 billion deficit, Newsom urged lawmakers to pass a bill delaying the wage’s adoption.
Newsom signed the delay into law on May 31, at the last possible moment.
Small businesses are not directly subject to the fast food minimum wage, but they do face pressure to raise wages since they compete for the same pool of minimum wage workers.
