A million Californians are admirably fighting back against state politicians’ latest egregious attempt at hyper-intrusive, command-and-control government.
When some parts of China’s economy are arguably more free than the new law for restaurants in California’s workers’ non-paradise, it’s no wonder the public is pushing back.
At issue is the FAST Recovery Act signed into law on Labor Day by the state’s leftist Gov. Gavin Newsom. It would tee up an unelected, ten-member council with sweeping authority to impose regulations and mandates on any fast-food restaurant that is part of a chain of 100 or more such establishments. The new council could, among other powers, set a minimum wage for the industry’s half-million affected workers of as high as $22 per hour, with automatic cost-of-living adjustments each year after that. The council’s makeup would be deliberately weighted against industry representatives in favor of employee “advocates” and, essentially, unions.
The good news is that the law appears destined to be put on hold until a statewide referendum can be held on it in 2024. With about 623,000 signature petitions needed in order to force a statewide ballot, petition organizers say they submitted more than a million signatures by the Dec. 5 deadline.
Californians are wise to oppose the new council, on grounds both practical and philosophical. In practical terms, a study at the University of California, Riverside School of Business estimated that mandatory wage hikes would raise fast-food prices by some 20%. Industry leaders ranging from McDonald’s to Chipotle, to Chick-fil-A and Yum Brands say the law will lead to reduced worker hours, fewer jobs, and perhaps the closure of numerous franchises — not to mention spinoff effects in other industries that suddenly would need to pay their own workers more to retain them.
Philosophically, the new council is a nightmare. Giving an unelected council such sweeping powers, completely divorced not just from ballot-box feedback but also from actual market pressures, is a notion profoundly at odds with small ‘r’ Republican principles and with the free enterprise system. And because the real economic victims, in addition to workers losing their jobs rather than getting raises, would be the individual, mom-and-pop franchisees rather than the parent corporations, this means that Big Government effectively would be favoring Big Labor over local businesses. Nothing could be further from the ideal of the American way.
Assuming that at least two-thirds of the petition signatures are valid, now begins a two-year campaign to make sure California voters understand the true stakes here. This fast-food-control scheme should, to borrow an expression, be put on a slow boat to China.
