Californians put fast-food law on 2024 ballot
The law creates a council that would set minimum wages and standards for working conditions at fast-food restaurants
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A California law aimed at raising wages and improving working conditions for fast-food workers will be put in voters' hands.
The initiative could overturn a first-in-the-nation law passed last year.
The law affects more than a half-million fast-food workers.
The referendum raised more than 623,000 valid voter signatures to be placed on the Nov. 5, 2024, election ballot, Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber announced.
JUDGE HALTS CALIFORNIA FAST-FOOD LAW AS RESTAURANTS, UNIONS HAMMER EACH OTHER
A sign is posted in front of a McDonald's restaurant in San Leandro, California, on April 28, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The law establishes a 10-member council empowered to set minimum wages and standards for hours and working conditions for California’s fast-food workers.
Two industry groups, the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association, promoted the referendum that would leave its fate to voters.
Opponents, who raised more than $10 million last year to fund the referendum campaign, argue that the law would burden owners of chain restaurant franchises and drive up the cost of food.
Fast-food workers drive through a McDonald's restaurant demanding a $15 hourly minimum wage in East Los Angeles on March 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File / AP Newsroom)
RESTAURANT GROUPS PUSH TO OVERTURN CALIFORNIA FAST-FOOD WAGE LAW
The law was temporarily blocked from taking effect in December by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge while ballot signatures were counted and verified.
The measure would have raised employee wages to as much as $22 an hour by the end of this year for chains such as McDonald's and Starbucks that have 100 or more outlets nationwide.
California’s current minimum wage for all workers is $15.50 an hour.
Both sides are expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to entice voters in the referendum fight.
Pedestrians walk below an In-N-Out Burger restaurant sign in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu / AP Newsroom)
MCDONALD'S UNVEILS FIRST AUTOMATED LOCATION
The Service Employees International Union remained confident that the law will survive the election.
"Despite fast food corporations’ efforts to distort the referendum process, we know California voters see through their tricks," SEIU President Mary Kay Henderson said in a statement. "No corporation is more powerful than half a million workers joining together to demand a seat at the table."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.