SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state’s Democratic leaders that much of the often-overlooked workforce is the primary breadwinner for their low-income households. .
When it goes into effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have the highest guaranteed base pay in the industry.
The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 an hour — is already among the highest in the United States.
Democrat Gavin Newsom signed the legislation Thursday amid cheering crowds of workers and labor leaders at an event in Los Angeles. Newsom rejects the popular view that fast food jobs are meant for teenagers to get their first experience in the workforce.
“That’s a romanticized version of a world that doesn’t exist,” Newsom said. “We have an opportunity to reward that contribution, reward that sacrifice and stabilize the industry.”
Newsom’s signature reflects the power and influence of unions in the nation’s most populous state, which have sought to organize fast-food workers in an effort to improve their wages and working conditions.
A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour next year.ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA
It also settled — for now, at least — a fight between labor and business groups over how to regulate the industry. In exchange for higher wages, unions have dropped their attempt to hold fast-food companies accountable for the wrongdoing of their independent franchise operators in California, a move that could change the business model that underpins the industry. Meanwhile, the industry has agreed to withdraw the referendum on workers’ wages from the 2024 ballot.
“That’s a tectonic plate that needs to be moved,” Newsom said, referring to what he said were more than 100 hours of negotiations needed to reach agreement on the bill in the final weeks of the state legislative session.
Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union International, said the law caps 10 years of work — including 450 statewide strikes in the past two years.
When it goes into effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have the highest guaranteed base pay in the industry. AP
The moment was almost too much for Anneisha Williams, who fought back tears as she spoke during a press conference before Newsom signed the bill. Williams, a mother of six — seven if you count her beloved dog — works at Jack in the Box restaurant in Inglewood.
“They’ve been with me on the picket line, and they’ve even marched with me,” Williams said of her children. “This is for them.”
Newsom’s signing of the law could win back some support with organized labor, which sharply criticized him last week for vetoing a separate bill aimed at protecting truck driver jobs amid the rise of self-driving technology. Unions have played a big role in Newsom’s political rise in California, offering a reliable source of campaign cash.
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Newsom’s appearance in Los Angeles came a day after the Republican presidential nominee – but not Donald Trump – appeared at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for their second televised debate.
Newsom, while denying any interest in a White House run, has positioned himself as invulnerable to GOP contenders and has traveled the country to criticize conservative positions on abortion and gun rights. His actions on the hundreds of bills before him may be seen through the lens of his future political ambitions.
The new minimum wage for fast food workers will apply to restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide, with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, such as Panera Bread.
Currently, California fast food workers earn an average of $16.60 an hour, or just over $34,000 a year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s below the California Poverty Measure for a family of four, a statistic calculated by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Equity that accounts for the cost of publicly funded housing and benefits.
The new $20 minimum wage is just the starting point.
The law creates a Fast Food Council with the power to raise that wage each year through 2029 by 3.5% or the change in the average US Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower.
Now, the focus will shift to another group of low-wage California workers waiting for their own minimum wage increases.
Lawmakers passed a separate bill earlier this month that would gradually raise the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 an hour over the next decade.
The increase will not apply to doctors and nurses, but to most other people who work in hospitals, dialysis clinics or other health care facilities.
But unlike the fast-food pay raise — which Newsom negotiated — the governor hasn’t said whether he’ll sign a raise for health care workers.
The issue is complicated by the state’s Medicaid program, which is a major source of revenue for many hospitals.
The Newsom administration has estimated the pay hike will cost the nation billions of dollars in increased payments to health care providers.
Labor unions that support the wage increase point to a study from the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center that says state costs will be offset by a reduction in the number of people relying on publicly funded assistance programs.
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