Minimum Wage for California Fast Food Workers to Rise to $20 Per Hour

Susana Guerrero
SFGate, San Francisco (via TNS)

California has a newly appointed Fast Food Council ahead of a state law that will increase the hourly pay for fast food workers to $20 on April 1. (And that’s not an “April fool’s joke.”)

On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed seven members to join the nine-member Fast Food Council, which was created to help set rules for franchise owners and restaurant chain representatives and working conditions for the state’s nearly 500,000 fast food workers, according to CalMatters. The council is expected to start meeting by March 15.

The Fast Food Council, which is the first in the U.S., includes two members to represent the fast food industry, two to represent franchisees and restaurant owners, two to represent employees, another two to represent worker advocates and one unaffiliated member, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

Newsom selected a mix that includes Anneisha Williams, a shift leader at Jack in the Box, and Angelica Hernandez, a cook trainer at McDonald’s, in addition to franchisees, industry leaders and one person unaffiliated with labor groups or the restaurant industry. Separately, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, appointed Maria Maldonado, deputy field director for Service Employees International Union’s fast food workers union, and the Senate Rules Committee appointed Joseph Bryant, Service Employees International Union’s international executive vice president, to join the Fast Food Council, according to The Sacramento Bee.

The move comes less than a month before fast food workers in the state are expected to get a minimum wage increase to $20 per hour on April 1. The new law applies to national food chains and franchises with at least 60 locations — but wage increase exceptions are applied.

For instance, in a news conference last year, Newsom spoke with reporters about a loophole rule that exempted fast food restaurants from the minimum wage increase so long as they sold bread that was made in-house. When asked about the bakery exception by KCRA, Newsom said, “That’s part of the sausage-making.”

Last week, Newsom was lambasted after Bloomberg reported that Bay Area billionaire Greg Flynn, who owns two dozen Panera Bread franchises around California, would not be affected by the minimum wage increase. Bloomberg suggested that Flynn’s Newsom campaign donations may have helped him get excused from the new law.

Critics quickly accused Newsom of giving Flynn, who attended the same high school as Newsom, special treatment. Newsom spokesperson Alex Stack told the Associated Press that the accusation was “absurd.”

Fast Food Council meetings will be public, CalMatters reported. Additionally, “most rules passed by the council” will still need to get approved and potentially revised by the state’s labor agencies before making it into law, CalMatters added.

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