Why would you invest in a fast food franchise in Los Angeles? The State sets the wages of your employees. The city sets the working conditions. When you lose money, it is your money that is lost. Government does not reimburse you for the losses they caused.
Doing business in California is difficult enough. But when you have a controlling partner, who put nothing in the business and risks nothing when it goes belly up—sounds like the Mafia.
Fast Food Employees Seek Protections from LA City Hall
by Contributing Editor, My News LA, 3/4/25 https://mynewsla.com/crime/2025/03/04/la-council-committee-to-discuss-work-protections-for-fast-food-employees/
A five-member City Council committee is scheduled Tuesday to discuss a motion seeking to extend worker protections for fast food employees.
The Economic Development and Jobs Committee will consider instructing the City Attorney to draft an ordinance that would extend protections under the Fair Work Week ordinance to employees of fast food businesses. They would also call on the Office of Wage Standards and the Bureau of Contract Administration to report on resources for enforcement measures.
It would then be forwarded to the City Council for a vote.
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.
In February, fast food workers showed up at City Hall as a part of a demonstration. They urged council members to extend protections that would provide them with more stable scheduling, paid time off, among other benefits. It would also mandate a six-hour paid training period to educate fast food workers on their rights.
The proposed policy was criticized by 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 in the city.
A recent report published by the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University and Northwestern University found 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. The law also established a Fast Food Council made up of nine voting members, consisting 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.
