The City Council Wednesday will consider a motion intended to provide fast food employees with more stable scheduling, paid time off, and empower them to report workplace violations.
If approved, council members would instruct the City Attorney’s Office to draft policy that would extend protections under the existing Fair Work Week Ordinance to cover fast food businesses in Los Angeles.
It would mandate a six-hour paid training period to educate these workers on their rights. Additionally, the city staff would be tasked with providing reports on ways to increase compliance, an estimate of costs, and an analysis of other jurisdictions such as New York, Seattle and Oregon where similar policies are in place.
City staff would also be tasked with gathering feedback from L.A.’s small business community, including but not limited to the Small Business Commission, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, quick-service restaurants and other interested organizations. They would also report on the current state of the fast food industry in the aftermath of January’s wildfires.
Council members Hugo Soto-Martinez, Katy Yaroslavsky and Curren Price introduced the motion calling for such protections July 2, 2024.
The Economic Development and Jobs Committee previously approved the proposal in March. It now heads to the City Council for consideration.
Councilman Soto-Martinez previously stated that the motion aims to address issues happening in the fast food industry, particularly by ensuring workers have predictable schedules.
Soto-Martinez has said that it’s “about providing workers paid time off to spend with their families and attend important events such as graduations, recitals, or a doctor’s appointment.”
“We have to recognize that whatever we’re doing right now as a city is not enough,” he added. “It’s not about posting something in a break room. It’s about giving workers the tools… folks need to be able to know how to maneuver this system, to know where they can go for support and make sure that their rights are being respected.”
Signed into law in 2022, the Fair Work Week Ordinance requires large retail businesses with more than 300 workers to provide stable and predictable schedules, additional opportunities to work and other employment protections.
If the policy is expanded, it would cover more than 2,500 large chain fast food restaurants and about 50,000 fast food workers.
A coalition of restaurant owners, business groups and quick-service restaurants brands have criticized the proposal as they argue it would drive up food costs and threaten the viability of local food establishments in the city.
A recent report published by the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University and Northwestern University found that one in four fast food workers were paid below the minimum wage in 2024, meaning employers paid out less for hours worked, refusing to provide overtime pay or requiring employees to do off-the-clock work.
A significant amount of fast food workers experienced wage theft — much more compared to other major industries in Los Angeles such as health care support, retail and transportation, the study said.
Additionally, the report said Los Angeles fast food workers lose almost $3,500 a year or 16% of their income because employers pay them below the minimum wage. In the last six years, that amounts to more than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to researchers.
With more than 557,000 workers across more than 30,000 locations, California’s fast food industry is one of the state’s largest and fastest growing low-wage sectors.
Last year, AB 1228 went into effect, boosting fast food workers’ earnings from the state’s minimum wage of $16 per hour to $20 per hour. The law also established a Fast Food Council made up of nine voting members, consisting of the fast food industry, franchisees, employees, advocates, one unaffiliated member of the public and two non-voting members, who will provide direction and coordinate with state powers to ensure the health, safety and employment of fast food workers.