Posts tagged fast food worker law
Restaurant Minimum Wage Hurting Businesses and the Workers Proponents Seek to Help
January 10, 2025 // For fast food operators, it’s not just this latest minimum wage increase. Since 2013, their minimum wages have increased from $8 to $20, which is 2.5 times. It’s unsurprising that they’re slashing jobs, cutting hours and raising prices. This also coincides with a major turn towards automation. Of course, automation is driven by many factors, not just increased labor costs – but they certainly don’t help.
CALIFORNIA: Dave’s Hot Chicken tests kiosks, bigger drinks in face of $20 CA wage
April 3, 2024 // “We didn’t see the ability to pull labor out of the restaurant, but we did see some positive impact on sales,” Bitticks said. Dave’s labor deployment at the cash register — the position most likely to be replaced by kiosks — is already fairly small. The brand still needs workers present to assist customers with kiosks, in the same way grocery stores deploy workers to oversee the self-checkout process, he said. Tickets placed at kiosks are about 7% to 8% higher than orders placed with an employee, Bitticks said. This increase is driven by greater orders of the brands’ entrees, and possibly by guests trying new items they notice on their own, rather than trying items based on conscious upselling. Dave’s managers report customers across age demographics are using the kiosks, Bitticks said, rather than just younger diners.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Bill To Carve Out Exemptions For New Minimum Wage Law Following ‘PaneraGate’ Scandal
March 27, 2024 // Pretty much, AB 610 now proposes to exempt fast food restaurants located in places which could most afford the $20 minimum wage increase because off how much more they charge already: at casinos, airports, hotels, event centers, theme parks, museums, gambling establishments, corporate campus cafeterias, and publicly owned lands including ports, piers, beaches and parks concessions. Only the mom and pop family-owned fast food restaurants will be paying the $20 per hour minimum wage – a “living wage.”
California lawmakers pass more carveouts from new fast food labor law
March 19, 2024 // The legislation approved Monday will exempt fast food restaurants in airports, hotels, convention centers, arenas, museums, casinos and college campuses. Lawmakers noted those workers already have collective bargaining agreements that include benefits and higher pay than the state's new minimum wage for fast food workers. The exemptions will apply immediately once the governor signs the bill. Sources who spoke to KCRA 3 on the condition they remain anonymous said Monday's action is the result of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) use of non-disclosure agreements in the final negotiations of the fast-food labor law, known as the FAST Recovery Act. SEIU required the fast-food industry representatives to sign the NDA's to build trust during a contentious discussion on how to move forward with the legislation last summer. As a result, SEIU kept other labor groups out of the final negotiations.
Restaurants move to stop new California fast food worker law
September 19, 2022 // If it stands, the law will create a 10-member Fast Food Council with equal numbers of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives, along with two state officials, who will be empowered to set minimum standards for wages, hours and working conditions in California. The law will raise consumer costs, isn't needed, and will create “a fractured economy” with different regulations for different types of restaurants, objected the coalition. The coalition is co-chaired by the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association, but organizers said it includes small business owners, restaurateurs, franchisees, employees, consumers, and community-based organizations.