Fast food workers demand further minimum wage increases

The California Fast Food Workers Union is urging the state to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers again.

According to a letter sent to the state Fast Food Council last month, the union is asking for a wage of $20.70 starting in 2025 and $21.40 in 2026. The proposed 3.5% annual increase is a response to rising inflation, the letter says.

The council was created to set wages and regulations for the fast-food industry through a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2023. That law also gave fast-food workers one of the largest pay raises in their history, raising the minimum wage from $16.21 to $20 starting in April. The union’s letter calls the nearly 25% wage increase a “major accomplishment.”

But several union members said restaurants have reduced their hours in response to the wage increase, nearly offsetting the wage hike. Even after April, fast-food workers still face “impossible” choices between paying their rent or their phone bills, according to the union’s letter.

Gilberta Acevedo, a Taco Bell employee in San Jose, said she is working only a quarter of the hours she used to. She said her manager told her sales were down and her hours were being cut as a result, but she is wary.

She said her store had a screen that showed all the sales and she hadn’t seen any change. Additionally, the store hired more employees and gave them the hours she used to work, she said. Now, without her usual hours, she said she’s fallen behind on her trash bill.

“I’m really sad. My manager, whenever she needed me to stay longer, I always stayed to help her,” Acevedo said through a translator, adding that she believes the store is retaliating against its employees. “So to go from regular hours to 20 or 25 (over two weeks) makes me really sad.”

At a party hosted by the workers’ union in San Jose after the Fast Food Council meeting Wednesday in Sacramento, workers urged council members to listen to workers like Acevedo. And many attendees, including Spanish speakers, expressed frustration at not having access to translation of the meeting.

Several speakers during their public comments at the meeting, including Acevedo who spoke remotely from the oversight group, asked the council to dedicate a public hearing specifically to hearing the stories of fast food workers across the state.

The San Jose watch party was part of the union’s statewide effort to pressure the council to act on its labor demands. As workers from the union’s Los Angeles chapter chanted “Si se puede” during their public address at the meeting, some San Jose workers nodded along with the chants.

But the newly formed council was more concerned with getting started. At its second meeting, the council’s discussions focused more on hiring support staff and how to develop agendas.

“We’re a completely new board,” said Nick Hardeman, the board’s chairman. “We’re starting from scratch.”

Fast food workers aren’t the only ones seeking change from council. Several public stakeholders have asked council to recommend exemptions to the $20 wage increase for ice cream parlor workers.

Matthew Sutton of the California Restaurant Association asked the council to give restaurants time to adjust to the April pay increase before taking further action.

“What you’ve done is huge, isn’t it?” Sutton said, referring to the wage increase. “Four dollars overnight: that’s beyond shocking.”

But speakers at the public meeting and the monitoring group said they don’t have time to wait for change.

“I’m tired. I’ve been in the fast food industry for over 20 years,” said Lourdes Farfan, speaking publicly remotely from the San Jose watch party. “You need to listen to us urgently.”