Photo: JD and Kyle Shoot Stock / iStock Editorial / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Fast food workers showed up at Los Angeles City Hall Tuesday with a renewed call for council members to approve the Fast Food Fair Work Ordinance.
The council is exploring an ordinance that would give workers more stable scheduling and paid time off, among other things. It would also mandate a six-hour paid training period to educate fast food workers on their rights.
The proposed policy has received push back from a coalition of restaurant owners, business groups and quick-service restaurant brands. They say it would drive-up food costs and threaten the viability of local food establishments.
Workers rallied Tuesday to urge corporations and elected officials to address wage theft, discrimination and other labor law violations that they say run rampant in the fast food industry.
They also highlighted the findings of a new report from the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University and Northwestern University.
Data show that one in four fast food workers were paid below the minimum wage in 2024. A significant amount of fast food workers experienced wage theft -- much more compared to other major industries in Los Angeles such as health care support, retail and transportation, the study said.
Additionally, the report said that L.A. fast food workers lose almost $3,500 a year or 16% of their income because employers pay them below the minimum wage. In the last six years, that amounts to more than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to researchers.
With more than 557,000 workers across more than 30,000 locations, California's fast food industry is one of the state's largest and fastest growing low-wage sectors.
Last year, AB 1228 went into effect, boosting fast food workers' earnings from the state's minimum wage of $16 per hour to $20 per hour. Additionally, the law established a Fast Food Council made up of nine voting members, consisting of representatives of the fast food industry, franchisees, employees, advocates, one unaffiliated member of the public and two non-voting members, who will provide direction and coordinate with state powers to ensure the health, safety and employment of fast food workers.
Industry representatives, including the California Restaurant Association, previously warned that the wage increase would be burdensome to some owners, noting that many fast-food outlets are operated by small business owners under franchise agreements with restaurant chains.
Fast food companies such as McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Starbucks and others raised prices in order to accommodate the wage increase. Two Pizza Hut operators made headlines after laying off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties as they pivoted toward the use of third-party apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats for food delivery.
Other critics said the wage increase could lead to job losses and businesses shutting down. Multiple studies have indicated that the policy did not lead to significant job losses or cut hours, but caused minimal price increases.
"We find that the sectoral wage standard raised average pay of non- managerial fast food workers by nearly 18%, a remarkably large increase when compared to previous minimum wage policies," according to a study from the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
"Nonetheless, the policy did not affect employment adversely," the study continued. "It did increase fast food prices, on a one-time basis only, by about 3.7%, or about 15 cents for a $4 item."
The city's Fair Work Week ordinance -- signed into law in 2022 -- requires employers to give retail workers their schedules in advance. It covers some 2,500 large chain fast-food restaurants and about 50,000 workers.
