California officials plan to seek a further increase to the state’s controversial $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers, even as they blame a new law that has led to higher menu prices and restaurant closures since it went into effect in April.
Members of the California Food Council, who successfully lobbied for the pay increase, plan to ask for another 3.5 percent raise when they meet later this month. According to Restaurant Business.
The council was created by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has been mentioned as a possible successor to aging President Joe Biden if he decides not to run for reelection.
The state’s minimum wage law requires quick-service restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide to pay employees $20 an hour, up from $16 an hour previously.
“Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of folly,” Tom Manzo, president of the California Business and Industry Alliance (CABIA), told The Post on Thursday.
“California has already lost thousands of fast food jobs through misguided wage regulations, and this new union proposal will only do more damage.”
A frequent critic of the legislation added: “If Gavin Newsom isn’t busy measuring curtains for the White House, he should be instructing his fast food board to scrap this latest idea.”
Fast-food giants McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Starbucks and Taco Bell have raised menu prices by up to 8% ahead of the new minimum wage law, which goes into effect on April 1, according to a report from Kalinowski Equity Research.
Franchises including Rubio’s Coastal Grill and Foster’s Freeze have since closed locations, citing rising business costs.
The California Fast Food Workers Union, affiliated with the Service Employers International Union (SEIU), holds four of the nine seats on the Fast Food Council.
The remaining four seats are held by lawyers and franchise owners of some of the state’s most popular chains, including El Pollo Loco, Taco Bell, Arby’s, Wendy’s and Krispy Kreme.
The man who could decide the case is Council Chairman Nicholas Hardeman, chief of staff to California Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins.
Atkins, a Democrat from the San Diego area, is running for governor in 2026 to succeed Newsom, who is term-limited.
The Post has reached out to Hardeman for comment.
The union already announced in March that it intends to seek an additional 3.5% increase that would raise the minimum wage to $20.70 an hour, which, if adopted, would take effect on January 1.
The union also plans to push for further reforms, such as limits on when fast-food workers can be fired and minimum working hours that employers must offer to employees.
If Congress approves the pay increase, it would expand the number of managerial employees eligible to receive more than double their overtime pay.
By law, salaried workers in California are entitled to overtime pay if their salary is less than twice the minimum hourly wage in their field.
So if further wage increases go into effect, fast-food salaried workers earning less than $87,000 a year would be entitled to overtime pay.
