In summary
A deal announced today by labor groups and the fast food industry would give workers a $20 minimum wage and pull a measure off the 2024 ballot. The Legislature has until Thursday to approve it.
A two-year battle between labor groups and fast food giants is culminating in a last-minute deal announced today that would give workers a $20 minimum wage starting next April if businesses agree to nix their November 2024 ballot measure to undo a landmark law regulating the industry.
The agreement, detailed in changes to Assembly Bill 1228, averts what would have been a costly campaign for both sides. And they each get a major concession: It ensures at least a modest raise for workers, while the industry gets lawmakers to back off on a controversial proposal to hold fast food corporations legally responsible for labor violations in their franchise locations.
The 2022 law would have established a state-run council with worker and business representatives to write rules regulating wages and working conditions in fast food restaurants — an industry labor organizers have long struggled to unionize. The council would have had the power to raise the fast food minimum wage to as much as $22 an hour. The statewide minimum wage rises to $16 on Jan. 1.
The law was quickly put on hold last fall when restaurant groups and major fast food corporations poured millions into a signature-gathering campaign to have voters repeal it on the 2024 ballot.
The referendum campaign in July...
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