A beloved Mexican restaurant has become the latest to close its doors in California

• Read more: A surprising number of take-out jobs are being lost — and restaurants are closing — due to California’s new $20-an-hour minimum wage

A popular Mexican restaurant has closed its doors for good in California, becoming the latest restaurant to close after the state’s minimum wage was raised.

Launched in 2015, Salud Tacos has become a San Diego staple, serving satisfied customers authentic Latin American cuisine for nearly a decade.

The owner of a popular Mexican restaurant has identified several factors that contributed to the collapse of his business, including problems with his lease and an increase in the minimum wage.

On Salud Tacos’ Instagram page, they discussed their inability to secure a new lease for their restaurant.

“This may be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to express publicly,” the owner said in a statement.

“For the past year, our lease in Barrio Logan has been coming up, and we have been trying to negotiate a new lease in our same space, and for the past year nothing has come to fruition.”

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They continued: “I was not able to secure what we needed. Along with other setbacks that are beyond anyone’s control, I had to realize that things may happen for a reason, and they are supposed to happen.”

The owner concluded: “After long sleepless nights, after struggling with many thoughts and emotions, and after much thought, I have decided to close our doors to Salud as we know it.”

The popular La Bamba bar associated with Salud will also close.

The disappearance of Salud Tacos, referred to by locals as the “King of All Tacos,” has left a hole in the community.

Under Gov. Gavin Newsom, California passed a controversial new law requiring fast food restaurants to raise their minimum wages from $16 to $20 per hour, effective April 1.

The minimum wage increase has contributed to the economic distress plaguing many California restaurants.

Since Newsom introduced the $20-an-hour wage, there has been a wave of closures, with one restaurant after another collapsing.

Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business, said he was not surprised by the finding.

“This is a tough environment right now for restaurants. We’re probably going to continue to see more of this,” Mayes said. CBS8.

The food company said the issue is not just the size of the pay increase, but the way Newsom presented it to the state.

“It’s not just a wage increase. It’s the speed of it. It went up 25 percent overnight.”

“The impact of this is huge,” Maze noted. “Big” might be an understatement.

Since the minimum wage law came into effect, an estimated 10,000 jobs have been cut from fast food chains such as Pizza Hut and Burger King, as companies struggle to adapt to higher wages.

But not all companies are able to adapt. This week, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, a beloved Mexican restaurant chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Across the state, Rubio’s has closed 48 locations.

The California Business and Industry Alliance (CABIA) criticized Governor Gavin Newsom for pushing the law, which also meant businesses in the state had to raise prices.

To highlight the law’s impact, the trade group ran an ad in Thursday’s edition of USA Today with fictitious “obituaries” of famous brands.

The satirical ad, titled “In Memoriam: Victims of Newsom’s Minimum Wage,” highlighted the problems faced by small brands including Rubio’s, and fast food giants including Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway and McDonald’s.

It features news clips documenting changes companies made in response to wage increases.

This includes raising prices, laying off workers to reduce labor costs – and in some cases closing sites.

The law, which Newsom signed in September of last year, increases the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour at chains with more than 60 locations in the United States.

That’s 25% more than California’s $16-an-hour standard minimum wage, which took effect in January.

Nationally, Congress has not touched the minimum wage in decades, still at $7.25 an hour. Instead, the so-called “wage wars” are fought at the state level.

“California businesses have been under full attack and assault for years,” Tom Manzo, president and founder of CABIA, told Fox Business.

“It’s just another law that puts companies at more risk.”

He said officials are living in “fantasy land” if they believe radical wage increases will actually help workers or companies.

“You can only raise prices so much,” Manzo told the outlet. ‘And you see it. People won’t pay $20 for a Big Mac. It’s not going to happen.’