California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Monday that will likely lead to the creation of new standards that will improve working conditions for workers in the fast food industry.
The legislation, which Newsom announced he had signed on Labor Day, establishes a 10-member Fast Food Council. The Council will be able to enact standards for fast food workers, including rules on wages and the amount of hours a person can work.
The law would not affect all restaurants or fast food operations in the state. Only fast food restaurants with 100 or more locations in California would be subject to the Council’s standards, the law stipulates.
The law “gives hardworking fast-food workers a stronger voice and seat at the table to set fair wages and critical health and safety standards across the industry,” Newsom said in a statement.
The Council will have an equal number of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives. It will also include two state officials, CBS News reported.
The legislation places a cap on how much the minimum wage can be raised, but still allows a significant increase over what fast food workers are currently compensated.
The living wage for a single adult with no children in California is among the highest in the country, at $21.82 per hour, according to MIT’s living wage calculator. The amount is higher for couples and people with children.
Presently, the minimum wage for fast food workers in the state is $15.50 per hour. Under the new law, the Fast Food Council could increase the minimum wage to $22 per hour.
The Council will also have the authority to create automatic raises in the future that are tied to yearly cost of living adjustments.
Business leaders and fast food CEOs have adamantly opposed the legislation, claiming that it could lead to steep increases in fast food costs for consumers. But studies have demonstrated that any costs associated with raising the minimum wage for food workers are minimal.
One study examining minimum wage increases over the past several decades, for example, found that, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, costs at restaurants only increased by 0.36 percent. This would mean that should the Council implement a $22 per hour minimum wage, a $5 meal at a fast food restaurant in California would only increase costs by about seven cents.
Advocates of the law have said that cost increases, if any, will be minimal. What’s more, the legislation will allow fast food workers to have more power to unionize and collectively bargain in California.
Fight For 15, an organization that promotes economic and racial justice for workers across the country, lauded the passage of the bill.
California “will soon have a Fast Food Council that will include workers and our advocates who will sit down w/gov reps and business to set standards for over 550,000 California workers,” the group wrote on its official Twitter page.
The organization then acknowledged those who fought for workers’ rights in the past.
“We can’t forget the nearly 10 years of relentless organizing that brought us here,” Fight For 15 said. “Today would not be possible without the efforts of our workers leaders.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re shoring up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy