California Minimum Wage Raised to $20 for Fast Food Workers Thanks to Organizing
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Fast food restaurants are not just temporary employment for teenagers in need of summer jobs. While that’s been the case for quite some time, this persistent stereotype trivializes the very real struggles that the industry’s 3.6 million workers face every day. As of 2021, the typical fast food worker is a 26-year-old woman, and fast food is a massive global industry that is worth billions of dollars . In California, workers have fought for over a decade to improve working conditions, even going on strike at over 450 fast food restaurant locations to demand the state legislature pass a bill to improve fast food wages and create a statewide Fast Food Sector Council. After fast food industry representatives tried to block the bill via a ballot measure, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sat down with the International Franchise Association and California Restaurant Association to hammer out a deal.
The results of that deal came to fruition on April 1, 2024, when many of California’s more than half a million fast food workers got one heck of a raise. Thanks to the AB 1228 bill, they now have one of the highest minimum wages in the industry: $20 per hour.
It’s a big win at a time when the federal minimum wage has not budged since 2009; while many states have raised their own minimum wages since then, it remains stuck at $7.25 (or less!) in seven states.
California’s minimum wage is one of the highest in the U.S. It is already set at $16 per hour for most workers, but that $4 bump is an important step closer to what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator estimates is an actual living wage for California’s workers: $27.32 (that rate covers a singular worker; those with larger households need a much higher wage). It’s a victory for a workforce that has long suffered from low wages and rampant exploitation, but also underlines just how much work remains to be done.
“While our wage increase will help and be a great first step, our salary, even with the increase to $20 dollars, is not enough compared to the cost of living in Los Angeles,” 25-year-old Jaylene Loubet, who has worked as a cashier for a McDonald’s location in Los Angeles for the past six years, tells Teen Vogue. Loubet got involved with the Fight for $15 alongside her mother, who also works in fast food.“ My mother is on workers compensation, so she is only making half of what she used to and will not be receiving the $20 dollar increase this April 1st. I am a full time student who only works a part time job to help with our basic needs. With both of our income, we can barely make do.”
While some fast food chains have started making noises about having to raise product prices or slash jobs in response to the legislation, multiple studies have shown that higher wages actually lead to increased worker retention, recruitment and job growth. The Roosevelt Institute found that companies can effectively raise wages without needing to cut their workforce or increasing consumer costs. In 2023, the 10 largest publicly-traded fast food companies spent about $6.1 billion on stock buybacks; according to the study, “using the most generous — and unrealistic — assumptions,” the new minimum wage law could cost employers a maximum of $4.6 billion annually. This basically means that these companies — which include McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, and others who are subject to the new minimum wage — could cover the increase in worker wages by paying themselves a little less.
Importantly, the new law also solidifies the power of the state’s Fast Food Council to “establish an hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees and develop standards, rules, and regulations for the fast food industry.” The council itself (which is made up of fast food workers, industry representatives, and government appointees) held its first meeting in March, two weeks before the minimum wage hike went into effect.
The Fast Food Council’s two worker representatives, Angelica Hernandez and Anneisha Williams, have decades of fast food experience between them. They’re both excited to use their newfound power to educate industry executives about the hardships workers endure, and to lift up their coworkers around the state. “I’m very proud to represent the more than a half a million fast food workers across California and be a voice for those who are too afraid to speak up out of fear of retaliation,” Hernandez, who has worked at McDonald’s in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years and has been an active leader in the Fight for $15 campaign, tells Teen Vogue. “I’ve fought for a very long time to get where we’re at and have done so much to get here. I’ve camped out at the state capitol, gone on strike and supported countless workers across the state. And we won’t stop, because we know we need to win more protections for fast food workers across the industry.”
As part of this fight, workers throughout the state have protested and gone on strike to address issues like unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, wage theft, and retaliation. Over 80% of California’s fast food workers are people of color, and two thirds of them are women. “I don’t want anyone to have to go through the things I’ve gone through on the job, like sexual harassment, wage theft and discrimination,” Hernandez adds. “It’s time fast food workers finally have a say in a system that oftentimes overlooks workers like me — primarily Black, brown, immigrant and women workers.”
In February 2024, workers announced the formation of the California Fast Food Workers Union (CAFFWU), the first-ever statewide fast food workers union. It falls under the auspices of SEIU, and its goal is threefold: to continue fighting for “fair, family-sustaining wages;” the opportunity to work; and “just cause,” or ensuring that employers have a fair reason to discipline or fire employees.
“The fast food industry has been skewed for far too long to work solely for corporations while leaving the workers out,” says 18-year-old Marina Orozco, a shift leader at a Carls’ Jr. in Sacramento. Orozco is currently working multiple jobs to put herself through college, and is proud to be a member of the new union. “It is important to join the union and build worker power so that people who are facing sexual harassment, wage theft, violence, racism, discrimination and retaliation in their work place can have a seat at the table and not be silenced about their experiences, along with having a say in coming up with sustainable solutions.”
Like the Union of Southern Service Workers, another SEIU-supported worker-led union, the California Fast Food Workers Union is nontraditional in that it will not seek recognition from the National Labor Relations Board, but it will be a dues-paying organization that provides various benefits to its members. Coupled with the Fast Food Council, the new union will give California’s fast food workers a well-deserved seat at the table, a megaphone — and an opportunity to keep pushing for what they deserve.
“I hope other young girls can see a Black woman, a single mom, a person that many overlooked and ignored, on this Council and see what's possible,” says Fast Food Council member Anneisha Williams, who works at a Jack in the Box location in Los Angeles. “I want young women to know that our voices are powerful and that the more of us who speak up, the more we can change things for the better.”
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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