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$20 an hour not enough, now Calif. fast food workers want another pay raise

August 2, 2024 | | Print Article

California’s fast food workers may have just gotten a state-mandated bump to $20 dollars an hour but they are already demanding another raise despite the controversial pay hike for unskilled labor.

This week, the California Fast Food Workers Union which is a branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) issued their “demands” at the initial meeting of the state’s new Fast Food Council.

According to a memo obtained by KTLA, the union is calling for a minimum wage bump up to $20.70 an hour “to keep up with the rising cost of living.”

“The union is also demanding more stable schedules, enforcement of backpay owed to employees, and an investigation into what it says are ‘pervasive abuses’ in the fast food industry, such as wage theft, harassment, discrimination, and unsafe conditions,” the outlet reported.

“As California’s fast-food industry grows, cooks and cashiers are doubling down on their fight across the state to win safe and healthy stores, stable hours, pay that keeps up with inflation, and training to understand their rights on the job,” the memo reads.

“Reaching $20 an hour is a major achievement. Yet despite this initial raise, fast food workers still struggle to pay rent, provide food and clothing to our families, and put gas in our tanks. Fast food workers continue to face impossible choices like choosing between phone bills and a doctor visit; car repairs or back rent,” the union says in a copy of a letter to the Fast Food Council shared on X.

“As California’s fast-food industry grows, cooks and cashiers are doubling down on their fight across the state to win safe and healthy stores, stable hours, pay that keeps up with inflation, and training to understand their rights on the job,” the SEIU said in a statement.

The demands come a mere four months after the Golden State’s $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers first went into effect, raising menu prices for customers and forcing restaurant owners to make tough choices.

In June, the iconic Hollywood Arby’s served up its last roast beef sandwich, shuttering the Sunset Boulevard location after five decades in business.

“The customer count has gone down over the last few years. A lot of the offices around this area are empty now, and we’re just not getting the same foot traffic we did before,” General Manager Gary Husch, explained to the Los Angeles Times. “With inflation, food costs have gone way up and the $20-an-hour minimum wage has been the nail in the coffin.”

“I have been forced to raise prices,” another Arby’s franchisee told the Fast Food Council this week, according to KTLA. “I try to do the best I can. I have taken money out of my own savings to make things work this last quarter. But I don’t know how long I’ll be able to sustain something like that moving forward.”

“When labor costs jump more than 25% overnight, any restaurant business with already-thin margins will be forced to reduce expenses elsewhere,” California Restaurant Association President and CEO Jot Condie told the outlet. “They don’t have a lot of options beyond increasing prices, reducing hours of operation, or scaling back the size of their workforce.”

Even though the price hikes are driving restaurants out of business and resulting in higher costs and cuts in hours for workers, any amount of pay will never be enough although execs at robotics and automation companies must be clicking their heels.

Chris Donaldson
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