McDonald’s franchise owners in California are targeting Democrats who supported a bill to give fast food workers higher wages and set new working conditions.
The McDonald’s California Operators PAC is a major contributor to the California Alliance of Family Owned Businesses PAC, which has been running negative ads against Democratic Assemblymen Chris Holden of Pasadena and Kevin McCarty of Sacramento. Holden and McCarty supported a bill that made fast food workers in California earn some of the highest minimum wages in the nation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed the minimum wage increase into law in September. Starting in April, California-based fast food workers at chains with 60 or more locations nationwide will make $20 an hour. The minimum wage in California overall stands at $16 an hour, rising from $15.50 last year.
The California Alliance PAC has spent more than $297,000 in mailers targeting Holden, who wrote the legislation and is running for the 5th District seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, according to financial filings. In 2022, Holden supported a bill to create a fast food council made up of employees, franchise owners, and corporate representatives.
The mailer does not mention the fast food bill but states Holden is “too beholden to special interests.”
“All I can do in the Legislature is to advocate for the things I believe in,” Holden told the Sacramento Bee when discussing how all parties reached a compromise when it came to the fast food bill, “and I’ve advocated for things I believe in. And I didn’t always get what I needed out of the body or the governor’s signature. That’s just the way it cuts. It cuts both ways.”
The group has spent more than $300,000 in campaigning against McCarty, who voted to pass the legislation last year. McCarty, a candidate for Sacramento mayor, was blasted by the California Alliance PAC mailers as “the wrong choice for mayor.”
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“Big business groups who are attacking Kevin McCarty for standing up for minimum wage for fast food workers is what this is all about,” Andrew Acosta, McCarty’s campaign consultant, told the newspaper.
The National Owners Association, an independent group of McDonald’s franchisees, blasted the bill when it passed, calling it a “devastating financial blow” to local and small businesses. “The new AB 1228 legislation has been voted into law and will result in a devastating financial blow to California McDonald’s franchisees at a projected annual cost of $250,000 per McDonald’s restaurant,” the association said in a memo obtained by CNBC in September.
