Gavin Newsom signs law raising minimum wage for California fast-food workers. Here’s how much

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it official. California’s fast food workers will have a minimum wage of $20 per hour.

He signed AB 1228 Thursday morning, culminating a yearslong campaign by workers and advocates to increase pay and improve conditions. Under the new law, starting pay will increase April 1. It also creates a first-in-the nation fast food council to oversee future wage increases and enact workplace regulations.

“This state is about inclusion and that’s the foundational principle that we’re advancing here today,” said Newsom, while surrounded by hundreds of fast food workers in Los Angeles.

Passage of the measure, introduced by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, was all but assured earlier in the month after labor groups and fast-food companies reached an agreement. In exchange for the wage increase, corporations will not be held liable for workforce violations at their franchisees and the fast food council is less powerful then before. Other changes include setting a limit in wages increases and prohibiting localities from enforcing their own fast food minimum wage ordinances.

Newsom, whose office acted as a mediator, said negotiations were easily a “hundred plus hours” in the last few months.

The law remains contingent on the expected withdrawal of a referendum proposal by fast food companies that would have challenged the council in the 2024 ballot. Similar ballot fights have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Signature of AB 1228 preserves the franchise business model in the state and solidifies the best possible outcome for workers, local restaurant owners, and brands,” said Matt Haller, President and CEO of the International Franchise Association.

The minimum wage hike will apply to fast-food workers at chains with more than 60 locations nationwide. Businesses that make and bake bread on-site, including Panera Bread, are excluded from the new law.

The current median wage for a fast-food worker in California is $16.31/hr.

Future increases will be determined by the new nine-member council consisting of two representatives of the industry, two franchisees or restaurant owners, two employees, two advocates for employees and one neutral member of the public, who will serve as chair. It is set to hold its first meeting by March 1.

Newsom pushed back against criticism that Californians will pay more for their Starbucks and McDonalds. He cited the The Fight for $15 movement, which raised the minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2016 and and $15 per hour last year.

“They’ve said the same as exact thing before and it didn’t happen,” Newsom said.

A Jan. 1, 2029 sunset date is included in the law, meaning it will expire unless extended.

The labor organization Service Employees International Union was the main advocate for the bill and celebrated alongside the governor on Thursday.

Workers and union leaders rallied around Newsom at the podium as he prepared to sign the bill. They chanted emotionally in English and Spanish and pumped their fists into the air. Anneisha Williams, a Los Angeles fast-food worker, had tears running down her face as Newsom handed her the bill with his signature.

“We did it,” yelled Williams, while holding the paper in the air.

SEIU has worked for more than a decade to organize in fast food restaurants, including leading campaigns to raise the state’s minimum wage and last year’s fast food bill.

“We were fighting poverty, we were fighting racism, we were fighting exploitation of working people,” said SEIU California President David Huerta. “Along the way you faced retaliation, insults, resistance from multibillion dollar corporations and you proved all of them wrong.”