(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)
Some of California’s lowest-paid workers at fast-food restaurants report that their employers have shorted them on their paychecks. A survey, released today by Fight for $15, a campaign funded by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, concludes wage theft is a pervasive problem in an industry where top corporations earned billions of dollars of profit during the pandemic.
A whopping 85% of the more than 400 survey respondents in dozens of California cities said they experienced at least one form of labor law violation, such as insufficient overtime pay or not getting compensated for hours worked off the clock. Nearly 60% were victims of multiple types of wage theft, according to the survey, which was conducted by bilingual outreach workers with Fight for $15.
The report’s authors argue a big part of the problem is the franchise model common in fast food. Namely, that the economic relationship between corporations and franchisees incentivizes the latter to cut corners on payroll, one of the few business expenses under their control. Meanwhile, corporations, which contractually control most aspects of franchise operations, are insulated by those same contracts from any responsibility for wage theft or other violations.
SEIU is co-sponsoring a bill in the state legislature that would make California the first in the nation to make corporations liable for any labor law violations impacting an estimated 550,000 fast-food workers. Most...
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