$20 Per Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers to Become Law in Democrat-Led State

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour starting April 2024.

When the law takes effect, California will have the highest base pay in the country for the industry.

“The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States,” the Associated Press reports.

BREAKING: California fast food workers will be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new law signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. https://t.co/1r4Z25BU2z

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2023

AP reports:

Newsom’s signature reflects the power and influence of labor unions in the nation’s most populous state, which have worked to organize fast food workers in an attempt to improve their wages and working conditions.

It also settles — for now, at least — a fight between labor and business groups over how to regulate the industry. In exchange for higher pay, labor unions have dropped their attempt to make fast food corporations liable for the misdeeds of their independent franchise operators in California, an action that could have upended the business model on which the industry is based. The industry, meanwhile, has agreed to pull a referendum related to worker wages off the 2024 ballot.

“That was a tectonic plate that had to be moved,” Newsom said, referring to what he said were the more than 100 hours of negotiations it took to reach an agreement on the bills in the final weeks of the state legislative session.

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With the minimum wage increase, Californians must consider the response from businesses.

How will they adjust to the higher costs of business operations?

Automation?

Closures?

Will fewer fast food jobs be available?

JUST IN: Gov. Gavin Newsom just raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour

Big win for these guys: https://t.co/Nf25p3WFJ8

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 28, 2023

Some of the company will go bankrupt or go out of business. ⬇️https://t.co/bkqwarXSor

— Judy ⛳️ (@judytgolf) September 28, 2023

Daily Mail added:

California’s fast food workers earn an average of $16.60 per hour, or just over $34,000 per year, according to the U.S. 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 Equality that accounts for housing costs and publicly-funded benefits.

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In California, most fast food workers are over 18 and the main providers for their family, according to Enrique Lopezlira, director of the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center´s Low Wage Work Program.

The $20 minimum wage is just a starting point. The law creates a fast food council that has the power to increase that wage each year through 2029 by 3.5 percent or the change in averages for the U.S. Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower.

The raise takes effect on April 1 and applies to workers at restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide – with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread.