Fast food and healthcare workers in California are in the process of receiving higher minimum wages by next year.
Fast food employees will see their minimum wages increase to at least $20 an hour in April of next year in Assembly Bill 1228, while healthcare workers can expect $21 an hour in June in Senate Bill 525 both according to the California Legislative Information website.
Assembly Bill 1228, the “Fast Food Franchisor Responsibility Act” or FAST Act, is a bill that was first introduced in Feb. of this year, according to OnLabor. The restaurant industry and unions reached a compromise leading to changes to Assembly Bill 1228.
Under the FAST Act, state officials were required to form the Fast Food Council, whose purpose is “to establish sector-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions adequate,” according to the official California Legislative Information website. These standards are put in place to ensure the health, welfare, safety and to supply the needed cost of proper living for fast food workers.
Business junior Kyle Hulburt, who is currently a server at a chain restaurant, said he worked at Taco Bell during the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and customers took him and other workers in the fast food industry for granted.
“I would say some people don’t look at employees working in fast food restaurants the same as the ones who work at higher establishments because fast food is cheap and fast,” Hulburt said. “They just kind of do whatever they want without thinking of being respectful all the time.”
The California Legislative website states that in the history of Assembly Bill 1228, the bill was originally designed to create a Fast Food Council to help the state oversee the fast food industries and to set certain standards. Under this bill, franchisors are liable for the actions and behaviors of the franchisees for labor violations.
Hulburt said that even with the raising of pay for fast food jobs, he would still rather stay working as a server making less money per hour.
“I would have to say no to going back to Taco Bell even if the pay is higher,” he said. “Dealing with customers at fast food places is not usually the best experience, and a positive change with this minimum wage raising is now these workers are not getting paid the fair amount of money for the things they have to deal with.”
On Sept. 21, members from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office mediated negotiations between various unions and multiple restaurant industry groups to come up with a compromise bill. This compromise rewrote Assembly Bill 1228 agreeing to a $20 minimum wage, a reduction in power of the Fast Food Council, and removed the section of the bill that stated franchisor’s can be liable for the behavior’s and violations of the franchisees according to the Bill Text on the California Legislative website.
The website shows in the bill history that the compromise negotiation potentially makes it more likely for Newsom to sign this bill into law, but it is currently pending a signature or veto.
The minimum wage for fast food workers will be $4 more than the minimum wage for all businesses in California after it rises to $20. The minimum wage for all businesses in California will be raised to $16 an hour in January.
Healthcare workers’ minimum wage has also been addressed by the California Legislative.
California’s lowest paying health care workers are nursing assistants, patient aides, janitorial workers and medical technicians according to the official Cal Matters website.
Senate Bill 525 was used to satisfy multiple issues within the healthcare industry, according to a website from California Legislative Information.
According to the bill, “Even before the COVID pandemic, California was facing an urgent and immediate shortage of healthcare workers, adversely impacting the health and well-being of Californians, especially economically disadvantaged Californians. Higher wages are needed to attract and retain health care workers to treat patients, including being prepared to provide necessary care in an emergency.”
Healthcare provider of internal medicine worker at Kaiser, Lina Valceschini said she is not on strike yet but says she will be if there is no pay raise or bonus given.
“If they give us a pay raise and our bonus, people will be much happier and they will want to work harder because there is incentive and a reward. They will not leave to find a better paying job. If employees leave, Kaiser won’t want to replace them, they will want us to work harder,” Valceschini said. “We need our bonus because we deserve it for busting our butts. We need to fight for our rights to win. We are underpaid and overworked, so that the big CEO’s make more money with our hard work.”
SJSU alumna Emily Cheung is a medical scheduler at Kaiser and said she agrees with the higher pay along with having good and stable unions.
“Bigger healthcare companies such as Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health already have a pretty competitive job pool because of their good benefits and relatively much better pay. From a healthcare contract worker, I do feel overworked and underpaid,” Cheung said. “In healthcare, there’s something we follow known as ‘Health Equity’. This is to ultimately believe in equal fair opportunities despite their backgrounds to achieve optimal health.”
