Why start your own business when you can tell other people how to run their operations without doing any of the work or assuming the risk yourself? That's the apparent theory behind California's A.B. 257, a bill just passed by legislators that would establish a council with the power to set wages and working conditions for fast food restaurants. It's a measure likely to kill jobs, guaranteed to cause headaches for business owners, and that will probably prove a boon for the automation industry as well as for fans of failed experiments in 20th century authoritarian government.
"This bill would enact the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act or FAST Recovery Act. The bill would establish, until January 1, 2029, the Fast Food Council (council) within the Department of Industrial Relations, to be composed of 10 members to be appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Rules Committee, and would prescribe its powers," reads the text of A.B. 257, which passed both the Assembly and the Senate. "The purpose of the council would be to establish sector-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of, and supplying the necessary cost of proper living to, fast food restaurant workers, as well as effecting interagency coordination and prompt agency responses in this regard."
