Emrys Yamanishi PO ’25
California is home to the most fast-food employees of any state in the country. Those almost 400 thousand workers currently make $15.61 per hour, averaging about $30,000 per year in wages. Reflecting the diversity of the state, over 80% of these are workers of color, almost 70% are women, and 20% have children. Many of these workers face unsafe and unsanitary conditions on the job: a recent survey found that 87% of fast-food employees reported being injured while at work at least once in the past year, and 12% reported being assaulted.
In a significant counter to these troubling trends, California state Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Assembly Bill 257, otherwise known as the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act. The bill greatly expands privileges and protections for fast-food employees throughout the state. Almost 100 different organizations supported the bill, including groups such as the California Labor Federation, ACLU California Action, Fast Food Justice Ahora, and United Farm Workers.
Principal among its provisions, the Bill allows the state to increase fast-food employees’ minimum wages to $22 starting on January 1st, 2023. In order to manage this raise, AB 257 establishes the Fast Food Council, which will be a part of the Department of Industrial Relations until January 1st, 2029. This Council will include 10 members appointed by the Governor based on the following categories: one from the Department of Industrial Relations, two representing fast-food restaurant franchisors, two representing fast-food restaurant franchisees, two representing fast-food workers, two fast-food worker advocates, and one from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. These members will maintain minimal standards of safety and positive treatment of fast-food employees, like proper “wages, working conditions, and training,” by conducting a full review of these standards every three years.
The New York State Restaurant Association, a group which works to represent the interests of restaurant owners in the state, challenged the law in early 2022. They argued that protections are “much more invasive than any law held permissible under the NLRA” (the National Labor Relations Act). The District Court for the Southern District, however, ruled in favor of the worker protection laws, and the New York State Restaurant Association is now taking the case to the Second Circuit Court. The amicus brief supports the worker protection laws and Commissioner Lorelei Salas.
On September 29th, 2022, the state of California further demonstrated its support for fast-food employees when Attorney General Rob Bonta joined with 15 other attorney generals across the country in filing an amicus brief voicing support for the Wrongful Discharge Law, which proposes to protect fast-food workers in New York City from “arbitrary and unjust discharge.” The Wrongful Discharge Law, first drafted in 2021, branches from NYC’s 2017 Fair Work Practices Law. The two laws together create a web of security for fast-food employees throughout the city, protecting them from unjust discharge and providing them with clearer scheduling, premium pay for late schedule changes, and the right to refuse additional hours without risk of facing retaliation.
NYC, which employs over 67,000 fast food workers, holds similarly high rates of diversity to California’s fast-food industry, with 88% of its employees being people of color and almost 70% being women. In his support for the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta noted the low wage of fast-food workers, stating that they “are among the lowest paid workers in the country.” This issue becomes even more troublesome considering wage discrimination faced by people of color and women—the majority of fast-food employees in both California and NYC. For example, Black women working in restaurants with tipping services in New York are found to make $8 less per hour than their white men coworkers.
California’s AB 257 and NYC’s Wrongful Discharge Law alike reflect changes across the country toward increased rights and protections for fast-food employees. However, these pieces of legislation are just the beginning, as fast-food workers continue to face discrimination from their employers. For example, the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) filed a lawsuit against Chipotle last year due to workers’ claims of nearly 600,000 violations beginning in 2017, the same year NYC passed the Fair Work Practices Law. The accusation cited Chipotle’s violation of numerous scheduling practices, as well as its creation of “false documents stating that the employees ‘waived’ the premium pay they were entitled to as a result of these violations.” In their legal battle, the DCWP was able to use the Fair Workweek Law and Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law sections of their Fair Work Practices Law to win over $150 million for those employees. In a comment to CNN, Commissioner Salas noted in reference to the Fair Workweek Law that “this case exemplifies the abusive practices that this law is intended to end.”
This sentiment is echoed by former California legislator Lorena Gonzales, who initially drafted AB 257. She argues that the Bill is an attempt to “give workers a voice on the job, and for workers in the fast-food industry, which will continue to try to organize.” In a field predominated by people of color, women, low-income, and disabled individuals, Bills like these support a movement to give these workers a voice, and a newfound sense of security.
