XPost: alt.food.fast-food, ca.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: yff@gmail.com   
      
   On 4/7/2024 1:31 PM, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:   
   > https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/03/california-minimum-wage-   
   > fast-food-workers/   
   >   
   > Say you work at a fast food restaurant or coffee shop that bears the name   
   > of a national chain. Under California law, you’re entitled to be paid at   
   > least $20 an hour starting Monday.   
   >   
   > Say you work at one of those stores, inside a grocery store. The grocery   
   > store, your employer, is exempt under the law. You’ll keep getting your   
   > current wages.   
   >   
   > But say you assemble burgers, scoop ice cream or prepare Frappuccinos at   
   > one of those stores, and it’s inside another store, but the bigger store   
   > isn’t a “grocery” because less than half of its revenues are made off   
   > groceries. What then?   
   >   
   > According to the state of California, the store should be paying you at   
   > least $20 an hour, but only for the hours you work in the fast food   
   > portion of the store. If you spend part of your shift checking out   
   > customers or stocking the shelves in the rest of the store, you’re only   
   > entitled to the regular minimum wage of $16 for those hours.   
   >   
   > That’s according to an 18-item FAQ the Department of Industrial Relations   
   > published in March as California businesses prepare for the fast food   
   > minimum wage to kick in on Monday.   
   >   
   > It’s not the only situation that is confusing employers and workers alike.   
   >   
   > To raise wages for fast food workers, the Service Employees International   
   > Union struck a deal last year with the International Franchise Association   
   > and California Restaurant Association that included owners of fast food   
   > chain locations but exempted those who operate independent restaurants.   
   >   
   > The law covers all fast food restaurants that belong to chains with 60 or   
   > more locations nationally, roping in the unions’ targets: McDonald’s or   
   > Burger King and their franchise owners. More than 500,000 Californians —   
   > primarily women, immigrants and people of color — work in what’s known in   
   > the industry as “limited service restaurants.” Earlier this year SEIU   
   > estimated the law will apply to roughly 3,000 employers.   
   >   
   > “The vast majority of fast-food locations in California operate under the   
   > most profitable brands in the world,” Joseph Bryant, SEIU’s executive   
   vice   
   > president and a member of a new statewide fast food regulatory council,   
   > said in a statement today. “Those corporations need to pay their fair   
   > share and provide their operators with the resources they need to pay   
   > their workers a living wage without cutting jobs or passing the cost to   
   > consumers.”   
   >   
   > But outside those national chains are numerous other food sellers and   
   > business arrangements, not all of which are directly addressed in the new   
   > law. Grocery stores and some bakeries are exempt, and this week, Gov.   
   > Gavin Newsom signed into law a carve-out for fast food places at airports,   
   > convention centers and hotels.   
   >   
   > According to emails obtained by CalMatters in response to a public records   
   > request, a range of employers have been trying to figure out if they must   
   > pay $20 ever since the law was signed late last September.   
   >   
   > In October, the Department of Industrial Relations received two inquiries   
   > from franchise owners asking whether they must comply with the law. One   
   > employer owned an Auntie Anne’s and a Cinnabon and believed selling   
   > pretzels and cinnamon rolls qualified them for the controversial bakery   
   > exemption. The other owned an ice cream parlor.   
   >   
   > “This clarification is imperative as to whether or not we will be   
   > financially able to open more locations at the proposed wage increase to   
   > $20 an hour,” the ice cream store owner wrote.   
   >   
   > Both were forwarded to the department with a request for legal guidance by   
   > a staffer for Assemblymember Chris Holden, the law’s author. In recent   
   > weeks, Holden has been unable to answer reporters’ questions about why   
   > certain exemptions — such a carveout for some bakeries — were included in   
   > the law. The department redacted responses to those emails under a public   
   > records exemption for attorney-client communications.   
   >   
   > The ice cream store owner, Gabriela Campbell, was featured this week in a   
   > KCRA report detailing how she contacted multiple state offices and still   
   > isn’t sure if the law applies to her.   
   >   
   > By December, employers were lawyering up.   
   >   
   > Attorneys for the Honey Baked Ham chain asked whether it would qualify.   
   > They described the stores as “retail meat stores” where customers   
   > primarily buy cooked hams and other “bulk proteins” and sides to eat at   
   > home, but acknowledged they also sell sandwiches that customers can eat at   
   > the restaurants or take to-go.   
   >   
   > Attorneys also sought clarification over whether their clients would have   
   > to pay $20 if they own a chain of Papa Murphy’s “take and bake” pizza   
   > shops.   
   >   
   > In late December, attorneys for an unnamed retail chain asked the   
   > department whether they would have to pay $20 in the fast food restaurants   
   > or cafes that are inside some of its stores. The attorneys noted the   
   > company’s stores sometimes sell groceries, but not primarily, and   
   > employees who work the fast food counters are often also assigned to other   
   > parts of the store.   
   >   
   > Department attorney Ehud Appel said it did not respond to individual   
   > inquiries, instead answering to the companies with the FAQ this month.   
   >   
   > In the FAQ, the state said: businesses are not exempt for selling ice   
   > cream, even though a national industry classification system excludes some   
   > ice cream shops from the definition of fast food, or “limited service”   
   > restaurants. To count as a bakery, the state said, the bread sold must   
   > weigh at least half a pound. And workers at a “store within a store” must   
   > be paid $20 for the hours they work in the restaurant portions of the   
   > stores.   
   >   
   > The answers apparently created new questions.   
   >   
   > The FAQ stated fast food managers can only be exempt from California’s   
   > overtime pay laws if they make more than twice the minimum wage — a   
   > threshold that is now higher for fast food employees. But attorneys for   
   > the retailer wrote in another letter to the department in mid-March that   
   > the stores’ managers only manage the fast food counters part time.   
   >   
   > It’s unclear how the state will handle the confusion going forward.   
   >   
   > Its FAQ directs workers who believe they’re wrongly being denied $20 an   
   > hour to file a wage theft claim with the Labor Commissioner’s Office — a   
   > process that is so backlogged amid a staffing crisis for the office that   
      
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