Ruth Silver Taube wrote an article for San Jose Spotlight about California bill AB 257, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act.
On Jan. 1, 2021, 20 states and 32 cities and counties raised their minimum wage. In 27 of these places, the pay floor reached or exceeded $15 an hour, according to a report by the National Employment Law Project.
Despite the raise in pay, however, fast-food workers still face wage theft, sexual harassment and assault and violence in the workplace. Wage theft is rampant, in part, because franchisors have such a tight grip on franchisees’ prices and operations that franchisees can only increase profits by cutting the cost of labor.
