Most of California's 500,000 fast-food workers would be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new bill aimed at ending a standoff between labor unions and restaurants over wages and working conditions.
Changes proposed to Assembly Bill 1228 would specifically lift wages for workers at fast-food establishments that have at least 60 locations nationwide. It excludes restaurants that make and sell their own bread, including Panera Bread. California's fast-food workers now earn somewhere close to the state's minimum wage of $15.50 an hour.
Fast-food companies and their workers have already approved the proposal, according to the Service Employees International Union, the union that represents fast-food workers. The proposal, which was introduced earlier this year by Democratic Assemblymember Chris Holden of Pasadena, must next pass the state legislature and then be signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"For the last decade, fast-food cooks, cashiers and baristas in California have been sounding the alarm on the poverty pay and unsafe working conditions plaguing our industry," Ingrid Vilorio, a fast-food worker and member of the SEIU, said in a statement. "We have always known that to solve these problems, we need a seat at the table with our employers and the power to help shape better rules across our industry.
The effort in California is an example of how fast-food employees can help shape state policies to better their future, said Mary Kay Henry, international...
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