California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill To Carve Out Exemptions for New Minimum Wage Law Following ‘PaneraGate’ Scandal

 California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed Assembly Bill 610 into law, which is the “clean up bill” granting exemptions for the $20 fast food minimum wage for fast food restaurants. Because as the Globe reported, Newsom’s PaneraGate scandal is admission that California’s arbitrary minimum wage laws hurt all businesses, but especially small to medium sized businesses.

It’s pretty clear now that the sole purpose of the law, given the specific exempted restaurants, is all part of the destruction of the middle class.

The bill language says: “This bill would exempt additional restaurants from the definition of “fast food restaurant,” including such restaurants in airports, hotels, event centers, theme parks, museums, and certain other locations.”

AB 610 will exempt fast food restaurants in airports, hotels, event centers, theme parks, museums, gambling establishments, corporate campus cafeterias, and Publicly owned lands including ports, piers, beaches and parks concessions – not just from the $20 an hour minimum wage starting April 2024, but also from regulation by Gov. Newsom’s creepy new Fast Food Council, which the Globe has reported on as government expansion and control.

“Franchisees for Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza plan to lay off more than 1,000 delivery drivers this year, the outlet notes, and other franchise owners are looking to expand in new states in lieu of California,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “Some chains, like Jack in the Box, are turning to technology to offset human labor costs and are testing machines to make fried food and dispense drinks.”

In late February, the Globe reported that California Governor Gavin Newsom facilitated an exemption in the original bill, AB 1228, for a longtime friend from high school, donor and the billionaire who owns a number of Panera Bread locations, from California’s new $20 minimum wage law. The exemption was written to the Panera Bread business model: A business operating a bakery and selling bread as a standalone menu item since September 2023, was exempted from AB 1228. Greg Flynn owns more than two dozen Panera Bread locations in California. And in addition of being a high school chum, Flynn contributed at least $164,800 to Newsom’s political campaigns, we learned.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) spoke strongly in opposition to the bad policy on the Assembly Floor last week, and said as the cost of living continues to rise, this bill will make it much worse, and lead to even more job losses.

“It’s so flawed, you are exempting people and additional industries from the bill,” Gallagher said. He asked if the bill was so great, why it bill needed a “clean up,” which often happens after a bad piece of legislation is hastily passed and signed into law – the supposed unintended consequences get rectified and “cleaned up” in new legislation.

He also lambasted the gut-and-amended bill, as well as the behind-closed-doors-process it took to pass AB 1228, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s heavy hand on it. Democrat floor leadership shut him down on that line of reply.

Pretty much, AB 610 now proposes to exempt fast food restaurants located in places which could most afford the $20 minimum wage increase because off how much more they charge already: at casinos, airports, hotels, event centers, theme parks, museums, gambling establishments, corporate campus cafeterias, and publicly owned lands including ports, piers, beaches and parks concessions.

Only the mom and pop family-owned fast food restaurants will be paying the $20 per hour minimum wage – a “living wage.”

Apparently if you work fast food at the airport or a casino, you don’t need a “living wage.”

Just like they had to do with AB 5, the independent contractor bill, they’re now having to admit they royally screwed up and try to “fix” a bill that should have died.

Sloppy work, as usual, from the left. https://t.co/Y9N4RKIsVD

— Senator Melissa Melendez (@senatormelendez) March 26, 2024

The Wall Street Journal reported:

“Restaurateurs, including Brian Hom of Vitality Bowls, said they are turning down opportunities to open new locations in California and looking at expanding in other states instead.

California had 726,600 people working in fast-food and other limited-service eateries in January, down 1.3% from last September, when the state backed a deal for the increased wages. Total private employment in the state declined 0.2% over that period, according to state figures.

Economists have long debated minimum-wage increases’ effect on employment. A study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last December found that raising the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour from $7.25 by July 2029 could increase wages for more than 18 million people, but also could reduce employment by about 700,000 workers.

Higher wages would increase employers’ costs, raise prices for consumers and depress some demand, the CBO found. Some employers would also turn to technology to try to reduce their reliance on low-wage workers.

This will not end well.