This week, California took a big bite out of the fast food industry. The US state intends to empower restaurant employees with a new law, which California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Monday. The norm intends to impose minimum standards for the sector’s 700,000 employees, with a council that will monitor dozens of chains, including Starbucks and McDonald’s. This body will be able to raise salaries and improve working and training conditions. It will also issue guidelines for a sector that has a high turnover in California, considered the fifth-largest economy in the world.
The Fast Food Council will be made up of 10 members, with equal numbers of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives. It has carte blanche to issue recommendations for the industry. This includes raising the minimum wage from the current $15.50 an hour to $22, which would make it one of the highest in the country. The council may also study any proposal backed by at least 10,000 fast food workers.
“Today’s action gives hardworking fast-food workers a stronger voice and seat at the table to set fair wages and critical health and safety standards across the industry,” said Newsom on Monday. Last week, when the law was approved by the California Senate, it was still unclear whether the governor had enough support to pass the measure in the Assembly. Some members of his own party had criticized the initiative, and employers had openly repudiated it. The California government, however, now...
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