When California governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 — legislation which raised the state hourly minimum wage for fast-food employees from $15.50 to $20 — into law last September, members of the fast-food industry were left with a lot of questions before the bill officially went into effect on April 1.

To address some of these, the State of California’s Department of Industrial Relations set up an FAQ board. Their material ranged from broad topics, like what constitutes a “fast-food” restaurant under the new law (the state defines it as a “limited-service restaurant” that sells food or drink for immediate consumption, and has more than 60 locations nationwide ), to the more obscure, like whether employers could simply increase the amount of meal or lodging credits administered to employees to count against the minimum wage (no).

However, it didn’t address one of fast-food employers’ biggest questions: How would they actually pay for their workforce under the new law?

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While the decision was lauded by many labor activists as part of broader efforts to improve working conditions and address wage disparities, some California franchise owners began preemptively cutting employees’ hours in advance of the minimum wage hike.

For instance, two days after the bill went into effect, Business Insider reported that two Pizza Hut........

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