First, check your pay stubs, paying particular attention to the section that deals with your hourly wage to see if your employer is adhering to the new $20 minimum wage. If you get paid in cash, look over those earnings carefully too. Remember, your employer is not allowed to include tips — or meal or lodging credits employees might receive — in the new minimum wage rise, if you’re eligible.
But what if your boss is trying to do that, is falsely claiming your workplace is exempt from the new law, or is straight-up refusing to pay you the raise you’re owed as an eligible fast food worker?
Chavez said that if your employer is not complying with the new law, you can:
Fast food employers must also publicly post a notice of the minimum wage increase inside the establishment (PDF).
Chavez said she recommended having communications with an employer in writing, “so that there is evidence of the employer failing to comply or whatever the response is … but hopefully just a conversation with them in person and then following up via text or email will suffice and help get the employer to make the necessary change.”
Some workers may feel extra nervous about having these complicated conversations, especially if they fear that their employer will retaliate against them by cutting their wages or hours or firing them. If an employee is worried about retaliation, Chavez said one could file a compliance complaint with the Labor Commissioner. You can also call (714) 558-4913 or email osharetaliation@dir.ca.gov. Legal protections against retaliation in California also extend to undocumented workers.
Bay Area organizations that offer free legal aid to workers include:
What is this ‘Fast Food Council’?
The new minimum wage law for fast food workers also created a Fast Food Council, which will meet to discuss employment standards within the industry like working hours and conditions – and could potentially set a new minimum wage increase from 2025 and onwards.
According to the state, the “hourly minimum wage established by the Council can increase every year by either 3.5% or the increase in the consumer price index, whichever is smaller. The Fast Food Council can establish a single statewide minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees or vary the minimum wage by region of the State.”
The Council includes not just representatives from the industry and workers advocates but also fast food employees themselves. The Council will also have two non-voting members from the Department of Industrial Relations and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and meetings will all be open to the public.
“[The Fast Food Council] is really unique to California and I think it’s great,” Chavez said. “We know that restaurant workers are unfortunately some of the lowest paid workers who often have safety issues — who encounter health violations and have to work through all that.”
What could the future look like for the fast food minimum wage?
“The minimum wage really is not something that results in livable wages,” said Chavez, who noted that “poverty wages” resulted in workers needing to take on multiple jobs and really struggle.” According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculation for California, an adult with no children would need to make $27.32 per hour in the state to make a living wage. An adult with a child would need to make $47.96 per hour.
The Roosevelt Institute think tank also released an analysis stating that it was possible for establishments to pay their employees more without increasing consumer prices — something that some fast food business representatives in California have claimed they’ll now have to do in the light of the April 1 minimum wage hike.
“Between 2014 and 2023, fast-food prices increased by 46.8 percent compared to 28.7 percent for the average of all prices,” the Roosevelt Institute analysis states. “Evidence of fast-food firms’ recent profiteering makes it clear that the upcoming implementation of a fast-food minimum wage of $20 per hour in California will not necessitate price hikes or employment losses, because profits in the industry are sufficiently high to absorb the greater operating costs.”
Joseph Bryan, the Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union and now member of the new Food Council said employers made price hikes and job cut threats when California set the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“The minimum wage in California has gone up every year since 2015,” said Bryan. “On the same timeline, fast food restaurants in California added 142,000 jobs.”
“The top nine publicly traded fast food companies alone took in nearly $25 billion in profits in 2023,” he said, adding that “multiple studies” had demonstrated that “higher wages lead to increased worker retention, recruitment and job growth.”
KQED’s Carly Severn and Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí contributed to this story.
