When it goes into effect on April 1, California’s minimum wage for fast food employees will be among the highest in the nation.
CA, SACRAMENTO According to a new law that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Thursday, California fast food employees will be paid at least $20 per hour starting in 2019.
According to data gathered by the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, when it goes into effect on April 1, the minimum wage for fast food employees in California will be among the highest in the nation. The state already has one of the highest minimum wages in the country for all other workers, at $15.50 per hour.
At a Los Angeles gathering, cheering fast food workers and labor groups gathered behind Newsom as he signed the law.
“This is a big deal,” Newsom declared.
The authority and sway of labor unions in the most populous state in the country are reflected in Newsom’s signing on Thursday. These organizations have campaigned to organize fast-food employees in an effort to raise their pay and working conditions.
Additionally, it resolves a dispute between business and labor groups regarding how to regulate the industry, at least for the time being. Labor unions have given up their attempt to hold fast food corporations accountable for the crimes of their independent franchise owners in California in exchange for increased pay. This action may have completely changed the industry’s economic model. In the meantime, the sector has consented to remove a referendum on employee pay from the 2024 ballot.
“I’m doing this for my forefathers. This applies to all farmworkers including cotton pickers. For them, this is. We stand on their shoulders, said Southern California-based Jack in the Box employee Anneisha Williams.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fast food employees in California make an average wage of $16.60 per hour, or little over $34,000 per year. That falls below the California Poverty Measure for a family of four, a metric derived by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Equality and the Public Policy Institute of California that takes into account housing costs and publicly-funded subsidies.
According to Enrique Lopezlira, head of the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center’s Low Wage Work Program, the majority of fast food employees in California are over 18 and the primary breadwinners for their families.
The minimum salary of $20 is only a place to start. The law establishes a fast food council with the authority to boost that salary annually through 2029 by 3.5% or, in the case of urban wage earners and clerical workers, the change in the averages of the U.S. Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.
Restaurants with at least 60 locations across the country are eligible for the rise, but those that bake and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread, are not included. The raise goes into effect on April 1 and is open to all employees.
The spotlight will now switch to a different group of low-paid California workers who are awaiting a boost in their own minimum wage. A different plan that would progressively increase the minimum wage for healthcare employees to $25 per hour over the following ten years was passed by lawmakers earlier this month. The majority of employees who work in hospitals, dialysis centers, or other healthcare facilities would be eligible for that raise, save doctors and nurses.
However, in contrast to the wage hike for fast food employees that Newsom worked to negotiate, the governor has not indicated whether he would sign the increase for healthcare workers. The Medicaid program of the state, which serves as many hospitals’ primary source of funding, further complicates the situation. According to estimates from the Newsom administration, increasing payments to healthcare providers as a result of the wage hike will cost the state billions of dollars.
The study by the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center, which claimed that fewer individuals would be dependent on publicly financed assistance programs, is cited by labor unions who are in favor of the wage rise.