Fast food giants pump millions into ‘Save Local Restaurants’ coalition against California wage laws
Major restaurant chains have seen California’s new fast food wage law and they want that order cancelled.
Coalition “Save local restaurants”, against the state FAST . Restoration Actsaid Friday it has raised more than $12 million, with Burger King, McDonald’s and owner KFC Brand Yum among the contributors, based on the The Wall Street Journal.
The law could set the fast food minimum wage up to $22 an hour next year. In California, the minimum wage is currently $15 an hour, with a 50 cent increase expected next year.
According to the coalitionThe law is “expected to increase prices by up to 20% during periods of high inflation for decades and will have ongoing impacts on local economies.”
The union says it includes “small business owners, restaurant owners, franchisees, employees, consumers and community-based organisations.”
The law applies to fast food restaurants with more than 100 locations nationwide. Under this rule, companies are prohibited from retaliating against workers who complain.
Opponents of the legislation hope to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures to pass the legislation next year and let voters decide in a referendum whether to block it permanently thereafter.
Otherwise, the legislation, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Labor Day, would go into effect January 1, with a 10-person panel working to set a minimum wage for food workers. fast, with inflation adjustment.
FAST . Restoration Act Statuses: “The purpose of the board is to establish industry-wide minimum standards for wages, hours of work, and other working conditions related to health, safety, and welfare, and to provide costs Necessary living essentials for fast food restaurant employees. ”
Unions pushed for the council after years of fighting to represent workers in an industry known for high turnover, low wages and little protection for workers.
The act describes fast food workers as “the largest and fastest-growing group of low-wage workers in the state” and says the pandemic illustrates what happens “when the workforce has no right to facing a crisis in an area with a history of poor compliance with workplace health and safety regulations. ”
In August, a McDonald’s executive described the bill as “Hypocrisy” and “inconsiderate.”
“It imposes higher costs on one restaurant type, while saving another,” McDonald’s US president Joe Erlinger wrote in a statement. “That’s true even if those two restaurants have the same revenue and the same number of employees.”
A McDonald’s spokesperson told Luck at the time the company, which rarely considers legislation directly, decided to do so in part because proponents of the bill see it as a model that could be implemented in other states.
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