Alex Johnson is the kind of entrepreneur who built California. A second-generation small business owner in the San Francisco Bay Area, he and his family run 10 fast-food franchises employing 140 people, most of them first-time job holders like disadvantaged youth and new immigrants. Alex’s family has spent 30 years growing their small business. They’ve never had to close a store.
But the good times are likely ending. He just signed a deal to run nine stores in neighboring Nevada. These may soon be the only stores he runs, because California’s leaders have launched an all-out attack on his business model.
Alex is one of 14,000 franchise owners who’ve been targeted for extinction by California’s leaders. Last year, lawmakers passed the “FAST Act,” creating an unelected board of bureaucrats with unilateral authority to raise the minimum wage by nearly seven dollars per hour and set other labor rules. It only covers the fast-food industry, affecting both mom-and-pop small business owners like Alex and the national brands that such entrepreneurs license as franchisees. Yet the council’s mandates won’t apply to unionized businesses. Franchisees are essentially being extorted into unionizing.
Small business owners and more than 1 million California voters like Alex fought back. They secured a November 2024 referendum that could repeal the law, which is paused until then. In retribution, now unions have pushed lawmakers to target franchisees with even worse attacks.
In February,...
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