In the face of recent intense pressures on fast-food workers, employees in the sector in California are about to get a boost with the creation of a body that will set wages and other standards for the industry.
The move is a hard-fought win for the labor movement in the state and is expected to be signed into law – called the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act – by Gavin Newsom, the California governor, later on Thursday.
It comes after a tumultuous period.
Fast-food workers in California have held over 450 strikes since 2020, according to the labor group Fight for $15. The unrest was spurred by having to continue working through the Covid-19 pandemic amid low wages.
Workers have also reported high rates of wage theft, being denied meal breaks or overtime pay, workplace injuries, harassment and retaliation, according to a 2021 report by the UCLA Labor Center.
The new legislation will create a fast food industry council composed of worker representatives, state regulators and franchises.
The new council applies to fast-food chains with over 60 locations under a common brand, with the council submitting any standard approved by a council vote to the California Labor Commission for a rule-making process.
The bill creating the body will also raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers in California to $20 an hour on 1 April 2024, with the council able to set annual wage increases beginning in 2025.
Current median wages for fast-food workers in California range from $16 to $18 an hour, depending on the municipality.
Sergio Valderrama has worked at a McDonald’s in San Diego for 12 years, where he says he has experienced numerous issues, from cuts to verbal abuse from managers. He is one of about 500,000 workers in the fast-food industry in California. He currently makes $16.50 an hour.
“It’s going to mean a lot for us. For me, I work two jobs, but with this new increase to the minimum wage, it’s going to help me a lot, it’s at least some sort of relief,” said Valderrama.
He recounted an issue with a manager who verbally abused him, calling him useless and yelling at him for things he had no control over, that nearly pushed him to quit.
“I was crying out of anger, not because of what happened, but because I was powerless,” added Valderrama. “This bill is a very impactful change for us because we will make more money, be able to help our families and have a seat at the table where we can talk about things that happen at work that need to change, like management abuse.”
Workers across the US have recently been pushing for sectoral standard councils at state and municipal levels to address wages and working conditions in other industries, including a nursing home council created in Minnesota in June 2023 and in Michigan in 2021, a board for farm workers in New York implemented in 2019 and a board for home care workers in Nevada formed in 2021.
Another bill also awaiting Newsom’s signature in California is one that would raise minimum wages for healthcare workers starting on 1 June 2024 to $23 an hour.
“This is a victory for all working people because what standards fast-food workers are able to achieve by setting up the fast-food sector council table with franchise owners, with workers and government officials is going to reverberate across the country, and set in motion, I think, better working conditions across all industries,” Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, told the Guardian.
“It’s a huge shot in the arm for this workforce,” Henry added. “The workers’ determination got the industry to rethink whether they were going to pursue that ballot initiative and agree to take it off the ballot … and I think that’s a pretty phenomenal success in just one year.”
