SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Since she came to California from Mexico 24 years ago, Maria Bernal has been supporting her family by often working two jobs at fast-food restaurants.
But she says she wound up living in a small Kia with her two youngest children, then ages 3 and 15, for six months after she lost her housing in 2019 when one of her employers began paying her minimum wage for eight hours even when she worked a 16-hour double shift.
Union organizers and other advocates say such wage theft and other exploitation is common in the fast-food industry, particularly for women and racial minorities who make up many of California’s more than half-million fast-food workers. The industry denies such abuses are widespread.
Bernal and more than 100 others who recently rallied outside the state Capitol are pinning their hopes on groundbreaking legislation that would give fast-food workers increased power and protections.
The proposal awaiting final action before the California Legislature adjourns Wednesday would create a new Fast Food Council made up of four workers’ delegates alongside four employers’ representatives and two state officials that would set minimum standards for wages, hours and working conditions in California.
Bernal said she hopes the council would give workers like herself “a seat at the table where they will respect us more and not allow wage theft to happen, and also importantly that we won’t be afraid of retaliation.”
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