Newsom signs California law raising fast food workers’ minimum wage to $20 per hour

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill Thursday to raise fast food workers’ minimum wage to $20 per hour, giving the state’s fast food workers one of the highest minimum wages in the country.  

The law, which will take effect April, comes after a major push from California’s fast food workers and labor unions, who held numerous strikes in recent months over wages and working conditions. 

Surrounded by workers and labor leaders during the bill’s signing on Thursday, Newsom called the bill a “big deal,” and pointed to the 557,000 people and 30,000 locations this bill will impact. 

“Eighty percent of the workforce, these fast food places — 80 percent of people of color, two thirds … are women, the majority are breadwinners, and we have the opportunity to reward that contribution, reward that sacrifice and stabilize an industry in turn. What a remarkable moment,” Newsom said. 

California’s current minimum wage, which for most other jobs in the state is $15.50 per hour, will be bumped to $16 on Jan. 1, 2021, which is already among the highest in the U.S. 

Prior to this bill, fast food workers were making an average hourly mean wage of $16.60, equaling around $34,530, according to data by the U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is lower than the California poverty line, which is around $36,900 for a family of four, according to a study from the Public Policy Institute of California and Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. 

Despite this, California’s fast food worker average wage was still around $3 higher than the national average of $13.53 per hour for fast food workers.

In addition to the wage boost, the law also establishes a fast food council that is able to increase that wage each year through 2029 by 3.5 percent, or the change in averages for the U.S. Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower, according to The Associated Press.

The AP reported the bill will apply to workers at restaurants that have at least 60 locations nationwide, with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread. 

Newsom also took the chance to compare the signing to Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif., which he attended, telling the crowd, “I can assure you this is different as daylight and darkness.”

“I needed this morning, I needed this moment,” Newsom said.

The signing follows a flurry of bills from Newsom over the past few days, including legislation on raising taxes on guns and ammunition, support for LGBTQ youth, and a law that protects doctors who mail abortion pills to other states.