
Mill Valley, CA: Workers at In-N-Out location behind counter take orders. (Photo: David Tran Photo, Shutterstock)
Fast Food Council Approves Motion To Possibly Raise State Fast Food Minimum Wage By Another 70 Cents
Council to vote on raise to $20.70 by end of May
By Evan Symon, February 27, 2025 8:00 pm
The California Fast Food Council approved a motion to consider raising the minimum wage for fast food workers by another 70 cents per hour on Wednesday, with a vote on the matter expected at their next meeting in either April or May.
The fast food wage in California shot up dramatically in April 2024 following the passing and signing of AB 1228 in late 2023. Tied to the state minimum wage of $16 an hour, the new minimum wage was set to $20 an hour.
The entire fast food industry began to struggle as a result. Some, like Chipotle and McDonalds, raised prices. Others invested in automated kiosks and other automated devices to help reduce the number of employees. Some stores outright closed, including most Rubio’s Coastal Grill locations in California. Worst yet, layoffs swiftly went into the thousands.
But things grew worse. In June, a Hoover Institute at Stanford University study cited by the California Business and Industrial Alliance found that thousands of fast food jobs were lost as a result of AB 1228, something which the Newsom administration publicly and vehemently deny for months. By July, a new survey found that 74% of California fast-food restaurant owners said that “there is an increase in the likelihood of shutting their restaurants down.”
Amid all of this, labor unions were actually calling for a raise to $20.70 per hour for fast food employees in August.
Governor Newsom and other state officials finally began to accept that the raise caused massive job losses following independent, federal reports by the the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that the state lost 5,416 fast food jobs since January 2024 and over 6,000 since September 2023 – more than 10,000 jobs lost. While Newsom and others in his administration tried to spin the numbers before the statistics were released, they failed. This was only heightened in November when it was found out that UC Berkeley downplayed the negative effects of the AB 1228 law earlier in the year.
Voters also rejected Prop 32 in November, which would have raised the state minimum wage to $18 an hour, largely because of the high number of job losses caused by AB 1228. And just this week, the SEIU themselves admitted that over 10,000 fast food jobs in California were lost in the past year because of the law.
A push for yet another wage increase
Despite all of this, unions continued to push for that 70 cents per hour increase, citing a need for a 3.5% cost of living increase. The continued pushing against a growing force against AB 1228 led to Wednesday, when the Fast Food Council announced that a vote on the 70 cents increase would come at their next meeting.
Restaurant owners and workers clashed before the Council’s decision. Owners said that raised prices, employee firings, cut hours, increased food prices and the growing automation of the industry have been a direct result of the raise, which is not even a year old yet. Should it go up another 70 cents, it could lead to more of the same. And with consumers fed up over the higher prices, businesses are set up to suffer even more.
“We haven’t recovered yet from the hike of four dollars per hour last year,” one KFC franchisee owner told the Globe. “It was the wage increase and the higher costs of everything that caused us to raise prices. And we don’t like to. This isn’t a greed thing. This is a staying afloat thing. We cannot afford another increase right now.
“You know the crazy thing? Workers are still saying they can’t afford to live on these wages, but we had to cut their hours to not go out of business. That’s the problem. It’s losing shift hours, not the wage. The Council needs to give us time to adjust and we need more studies showing just exactly what the wage increase did. Once things settle down and we give workers more hours back, then we can discuss more options.”
However, for workers, inflation and rising prices of everything from rent to food have caused them to get more desperate. With their $20 per hour wages not covering everything
Restaurant operators pleaded for the council to hold off on further increases, with many saying they have been forced to raise menu prices, eliminate positions or cut hours for their workers after the minimum wage for fast-food workers increased 25% to $20 per hour last April.
Workers, meanwhile, shared how they were struggling to keep up with inflation, citing increases in grocery prices, rent and other costs.
“The cost of my rent and my medicine has gone up,” said Veronica Gonzales, a fast food worker, at the meeting on Wednesday. “I cannot live with this wage.”
Both sides are now awaiting the Council’s next meeting, which is to be in either April or May. Already, owners are preparing for the worst, meaning possible higher prices or even more layoffs on the horizon.
“We don’t have many options,” added the KFC franchisee on Thursday. “Ever since AB 1228 was signed, we have had to decide between hurting our customers more or hurting our employees more. This would never have happened if AB 1228 failed.”
Great coverage by Evan Symon as usual of this CA business disaster. Really helpful to know how the restaurant owners are responding to this nonsense .
Considering how outrageous and unacceptable it is to have a Marxist “Fast Food Council” call the shots on how private businesses are run, I’m surprised restaurant owners aren’t screaming bloody murder at this point. Why aren’t they? Given the inevitable outcome of this kind of B.S. don’t we expect it? And have the minimum wage diktats achieved the goal? No, of course not! And never will.
Gee, I thought an arm of the SEIU finally realized that the fast food $20 minimum wage law was a disaster that got them NOTHING. Maybe the other commies would like to get the message before the next meeting?
See recent Globe article for more information about why the “fast food council” needs to pay attention, referenced above:
“New SEIU-Funded Report Admits $20 Wage Law Caused Fast Food Job Losses”
https://californiaglobe.com/fl/new-seiu-funded-report-admits-20-wage-law-caused-fast-food-job-losses/
I did not vote for the “fast food council”
Is Panerea Bread still on this council?
The people need to repeal AB1228 along with many other harmful legislation.
The California Fast Food Council is a fairly new division of the Department of Industrial Relations. You can read about it here: https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/01/california-fast-food-council-2/
On the surface its members appear to be balanced between restaurants and employees but the Governor gets to appoint the Chair who has tie-breaking voting authority. Their actions look like they embrace the “victim” status of fast food workers and they intend to save the victims. Perhaps they should be renamed the “No Food Council”.
Wow they double down on stupid! By no accident I am sure!
They want to rid this state of fast food options. Soon the employees will have no job and no cheap dining options. Soon to be more people on the government dole.
See?? This is just another one of Gavin Newsom’s hide behind the faceless/nameless “council” maneuvers to throw a bone to his union supporters, who grift off their union members’ wages…
And the “inflationary” cycle continues…
Fortunately, President Trump is taking steps to change the insane energy policies that were enacted Resident Biden’s economic reign of terror, and that should help bring down the cost of transporting goods to market (and restaurants) but it appears that these idiots haven’t learned the lesson from The Globe’s article the other day that listed out the harm that’s been done to the fast-food industry under Governor Giveaway’s economic reign-of-terror….
The big players are all for it, as it will drive small establishments out of business.
I haven’t eaten one bite of fast food since the minimum wage increase. I’m not paying for this.
To this day, no one has been able to explain to me how it is constitutionally legal to give a different minimum wage to some people and not all people. All I get told is it’s something to do with union stroking, which def seems illegal to me