State Senate should vote down AB 257

You've probably seen the self-serve machines at fast-food restaurants. If Assembly Bill 257 passes, there will be a lot more of them. The bill is sponsored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, and already has passed the Assembly and two Senate committees.

The bill would set up a new state bureaucracy, the Fast Food Sector Council, within the Department of Industrial Relations, with members appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee.

In the bill's language,

“The purpose of the council would be to establish sectorwide minimum standards on wages, working hours and other working conditions related to the health, safety and welfare” of fast-food workers.

It also would regulate “supplying the necessary cost of proper living” to the workers, meaning it would set wages and benefits minimums higher than the state minimum wage, which currently is $15 in California, with higher minimums in many cities. In the city of

Los Angeles it's $16.04 and in Pasadena it's $16.11.

AB 257 also “would define the characteristics of a fastfood restaurant,” as if Californians couldn't tell the difference between a McDonald's and a family-run burger joint.

According to the Senate Judiciary Committee's analysis, the bill is needed because of “evidence that workplace pay and safety violations are prevalent in the fast food industry.”

And the new bureaucracy would “develop new, industry-specific labor standards and to heighten the accountability of fast-food franchisors for workplace violations committed by their franchisees.” Meaning the franchise headquarters, such as McDonald's in Illinois, would become more responsible than currently for what goes on locally in California.

The bill's enforcement cost to California taxpayers, according to the Senate analysis, “would result in special funds costs in the millions of dollars, likely reaching the tens of millions of dollars.”

But the legal compliance costs to the fast-food industry would run to many tens of millions more, forcing increases in the costs of the food to consumers — at a time of already galloping inflation.

The reality is California already has among the country's highest minimum-wage, worker-protection and health mandates in the country.

There is no realistic or practical need for this law. To be clear, this law is not about workers. It is not about bringing businesses up to compliance with California's extensive labor laws. Businesses are already doing all of that.

The only obvious purpose is to bolster the power and influence of the unions behind the bill. That's it. And in exchange, California's consumers, business owners and franchise operators will pay the price.

AB 257 is like a cold cup of fast-food coffee that should be poured down the drain. If the Legislature has any common sense left, it will stop this nonsensical bill in its tracks.