SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Since she came to California from Mexico 24 years ago, Maria Bernal hasactually been supporting her household by frequently working 2 tasks at quick food diningestablishments.
But she states she injury up living in a little Kia with her 2 youngest kids, then ages 3 and 15, for 6 months after she lost her realestate in 2019 when one of her companies started paying her minimum wage for 8 hours even when she worked a 16-hour double shift.
Union organizers and other supporters state such wage theft and other exploitation is typical in the quick food market, especially for females and racial minorities who make up lotsof of California’s more than half-million quick food employees. The market rejects such abuses are extensive.
Bernal and more than 100 others who justrecently rallied outside the state Capitol are pinning their hopes on groundbreaking legislation that would offer quick food employees increased power and securities.
The proposition waitingfor last action priorto the California Legislature adjourns Wednesday would develop a brand-new Fast Food Council made up of 4 employees’ delegates togetherwith 4 companies’ agents and 2 state authorities that would set minimum requirements for earnings, hours and working conditions in California.
Bernal stated she hopes the council would provide employees like herself “a seat at the table where they will regard us more and not permit wage theft to takeplace, and likewise significantly that we won’t be scared of retaliation.”
Restaurant owners and franchisers state the proposition would drive up the cost of quick food. They pointout an analysis they commissioned by the UC Riverside Center for Economic Forecast and Development that puts the cost boost at 7% to 20%.
A late wage cap included to the expense would keep the boost on the low end of that variety. Late modifications limitation any minimum wage bump to $22 an hour next year, with expense of living increases afterwards, while the statewide minimum will be $15.50 an hour.
Other late changes mean the council would likewise have to be authorized by a petition signed by 10,000 quickly food employees, and the council would now vanish after 6 years unless it is restored.
Matthew Haller, president & CEO of the International Franchise Association, dismissed the last-minute modifications as “an effort to put lipstick on a pig.”
An earlier variation cleared the Assembly in January with no votes to extra after falling brief last year, and the modified expense is waitingfor factortoconsider in the Senate.
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