Over the last two years, millions of workers have quit their jobs in search of
Governor Newsom signed the FAST Recovery Act, or FAST Act, into law on Sept. 5, in an effort to improve wages, training and health and safety conditions for fast food workers in the state. Going into effect January 2023, the FAST Act will establish a 10-member Fast Food Council with the power to set industry-wide employment standards, essentially unionizing California's 556,000 fast food workers under one law.
"The enactment of [FAST Act] is seen as a huge victory by unions and many nonunionized fast food workers," says Belle Hsu, senior attorney editor at Thomson Reuters' practical law labor and employment division. "It allows workers to participate in a form of collective bargaining without having to undergo union organizing efforts in an industry that has been difficult to organize, due to high turnover and franchise ownership."
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Notably, the new labor law could raise the minimum wage for fast food workers as high as $22 an hour in the new year. Although, between backlash to the new labor law and a currently unknown council, it may be too soon to tell what influence the FAST Act will have.
"The likelihood of raising the minimum wage to over $20 in 2023 is unclear," says Hsu. "It is difficult at this time to predict what the Fast Food Council, once established, will do, especially given the challenges to this law already."
The law has already been met with immediate opposition, namely from the Save Local Restaurants coalition, which is seeking to suspend the FAST Act until the next statewide election in November 2024, explains Hsu. The coalition has argued that the new law would raise food prices in California, hurt small businesses and stifle job growth in the wake of higher wages and bureaucratic standards.
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"The new law singles out the fast food industry, which the coalition believes already has strict worker protection rules and would allow a small unelected committee to override those rules," says Hsu. "The coalition believes the greatest harm will be to lower-income and communities of color, including thousands of small, family, minority and women-owned businesses."
The FAST Act, along with the council's influence, only applies to California fast food restaurants with 100 or more establishments nationwide. Despite backlash, the law has the potential to help over half a million restaurant workers in California get closer to making a living wage (which sits at $21.82 an hour for one adult living in California, according to MIT's living wage calculator).
While the unelected committee has yet to be formed, efforts are being made to staff it with representatives from across the fast food industry: the Fast Food Council will be made up of two fast food restaurant franchisors, two franchisees, two restaurant employees, two advocates for fast food restaurant employees, one Department of Industrial Relations representative and one Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development representative. As Hsu notes, the council's makeup doesn't guarantee a minimum wage increase.
Regardless, Hsu predicts that if the FAST Act does go into effect, it could set a nationwide precedent.
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"[The FAST Act] serves as a model for establishing an unelected council to set industry-wide employment standards for other industries, such as retail, home health care, and nail salons," she says. "[It can also be a model] for similar bills in states where the Democrats control the legislature and the governor is also a Democrat, such as in New York."
Given that the restaurant industry has taken the brunt of the health and safety risks that come with the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside historically low wages, Hsu anticipates even more political focus being turned toward these essential workers.
"The pandemic has hit fast food workers hard both financially and medically," says Hsu. "By signing this bill into law, Governor Newsom agrees with the state legislature that existing enforcement and regulatory mechanisms have been ineffective in ensuring fast food restaurant workers' health, safety and welfare."
