$20 an hour isn’t enough, California fast food workers now want another pay raise

California fast food workers may have just won a state-mandated wage increase to $20 an hour, but they’re already demanding another raise despite the controversial wage hike for unskilled workers.

This week, the California Fast Food Workers Union, a branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU), issued its “demands” at the initial meeting of the state’s new Fast Food Council.

According to a memo obtained by KTLA, the union is demanding an increase in the minimum wage to $20.70 an hour “to address the rising cost of living.”

“The union is also demanding more stable schedules, back pay owed to employees and an investigation into what it calls “widespread abuses” in the fast food industry, such as wage theft, harassment, discrimination and unsafe conditions,” the outlet reported.

“As California’s fast food industry grows, cooks and cashiers are stepping up their fight across the state for safe and healthy stores, stable hours, pay that keeps up with inflation, and training to understand their rights on the job,” the memo reads.

“Getting to $20 an hour is a major step forward. Yet despite this initial increase, fast food workers still struggle to pay their rent, feed and clothe their families, and fill their gas tanks. Fast food workers continue to make impossible choices, like choosing between paying their phone bills and seeing a doctor, fixing their cars or paying their back rent,” the union said in a copy of a letter addressed to the Fast Food Council and shared on X.

“As California’s fast food industry grows, cooks and cashiers are stepping up their fight across the state for safe and healthy stores, stable hours, pay that keeps up with inflation and training to understand their rights on the job,” SEIU said in a statement.

The demands come just four months after the $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast-food workers went into effect in the Golden State, raising menu prices for customers and forcing restaurant owners to make tough choices.

In June, Hollywood’s iconic Arby’s served its last roast beef sandwich, closing the Sunset Boulevard location after five decades in business.

“The number of customers has declined over the last few years. A lot of offices in that area are now empty and we don’t have as many customers as we used to,” General Manager Gary Husch told the Los Angeles Times. “With inflation, food prices have skyrocketed and the $20-an-hour minimum wage was the nail in the coffin.”

“I had to raise prices,” another Arby’s franchisee told the Fast Food Council this week, according to KTLA. “I’m trying to do the best I can. I’ve been dipping into my own savings to keep things going this past quarter. But I don’t know how long I can keep this going.”

“When labor costs increase by more than 25% overnight, any restaurant business with already thin margins will be forced to cut costs elsewhere,” said Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association. “They don’t have much choice but to raise prices, reduce hours or cut staff.”

Even if price hikes drive restaurants out of business and lead to higher costs and reduced hours for workers, no amount of pay will ever be enough, even if the executives of robotics and automation companies have to click their heels.

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Chris Donaldson
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