A proposal awaiting final action in California would create a fast food council made up of four workers’ delegates alongside four employers’ representatives and two state officials that would set wage standards, hours, working conditions, and more in the state, if passed, according to Associated Press News.
The current revised bill is awaiting consideration in the Senate after narrowly clearing the Assembly.
Restaurant owners and franchisers are against the proposal, saying it would drive the price of fast food between 7 and 20 percent, citing an analysis from UC Riverside Center for Economic Forecast and Development.
A late amendment including a revised wage cap added to the bill would help to keep the price increases down. It calls for an increase in minimum wages for workers at large chains (with a footprint of over 100 locations) to be $22 an hour, compared to the current $15.50 an hour across the state. A second amendment that came shortly after asserts the fast food council would need the support of 10,000 fast food workers via petition, with an expiration date of six years, unless it is renewed.
“If we are successful here, workers in Florida, Texas, New York, even Idaho will be heartened and they can replicate our successes,” said Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee at a workers’ rally.
The newspaper asserts that the current bill grew out of the fight for a $15 minimum wage, combined with labor union’s efforts to organize fast food workers both in the state and across the country.
“This is more than just a labor fight. This is a fight about racial justice, this is a fight about gender justice,” Joseph Bryant, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, told the news source. “Eighty percent of the workers are people of color who work in fast food. Two-thirds of the workers are women who work in fast food, and these workers are being exploited.”
According to a joint study by Harvard and UC San Francisco, fast food workers in California are paid almost $3 less per hour when compared to similar workers in other service sector positions.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance, however, is included in the bill’s list of dissenters, noting the costs it could incur, and a possible “fragmented regulatory and legal environment.” Full Story
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Image: California State Senate