California’s fast-food workers win fight for $20 hourly pay and industry council

Fast-food workers and union activists demonstrate outside the California state capitol for an increase in wages to $20 an hour. Photograph: Terry Chea/AP

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.