California lawmakers approve bills to raise worker pay

(15 Sep 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4453832
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sacramento, California - 15 September 2023
1. Overhead view of lawmakers in state Assembly chamber
HEADLINE: Calif. lawmakers approve bills to raise worker pay
2. California State Capitol building surrounded by trees
3. Union activists demonstrating for Assembly Bill 525 outside Capitol building
ANNOTATION: The legislation would raise hourly pay for health care and fast-food workers.
4. Lawmakers in state Assembly chamber
ANNOTATION: Gov. Gavin Newsom must now decide whether to sign the bills into law.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tia Orr, SEIU California, director of governmental affairs:
"(AB) 525 is a bill that's going to lift wages for health care workers up to $25 an hour. And the 1228 bill is for fast food workers not only to establish a council, but to guarantee them $20 an hour come the start of next year."
6. Various of demonstrators supporting fast-food wage bill
7. SOUNDBITE (English) State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D) Los Angeles, author of healthcare worker pay legislation:
"That goes back into the communities. They spend it on groceries. They pay the rent so that they don't face eviction. They will spend it. It will circulate into our economy and we will all be better off."
8. Lawmakers in state Senate chamber
9. Lawmakers in state Assembly chamber
10. Assemblymember Holden at desk on Assembly floor
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Assemblymember Chris Holden (D) Pasadena, author of fast-food legislation:
"When you're getting a minimum wage somewhere between 15 and $16 an hour, there's just no way to to survive on that. $20 it's going to be hard to survive on that as well. But it certainly is a move in the right direction."
12. Union activists demonstrating for Assembly Bill 525 outside Capitol building
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Romualda Alcazar Cruz, fast-food worker:
"This $20 an hour is going to help a lot. Right now I only earn $16 an hour."
12. Lawmakers on state Assembly floor
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Assemblymember James Gallagher, (R) Yuba City:
"I mean, raising wages in the near term might be good for that for that worker in the short term. But in the long term, it means higher costs for the California consumer and actually in the long term may lead to the elimination of those jobs for the worker. So that's why it's problematic."
14. Various of lawmakers on state Assembly floor
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Tia Orr, SEIU California, director of governmental affairs:
"Make no mistake, this is a result of workers passion and fight that. You see these two big outcomes coming out in California and hopefully signed by the governor."
16 Various of exterior of California State Capitol Building


STORYLINE:
Nearly 1 million California workers are poised to win major salary increases after labor unions flexed their collective muscle in the state's Democratic-led Legislature following a summer of high-profile strikes in the entertainment and hospitality industries.

Most of the state's 500,000 fast food workers would be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new bill aimed at ending a standoff between the industry and labor unions over wages and working conditions.

About 455,000 health care workers — not doctors and nurses, but the people who do everything else at hospitals, dialysis clinics and other facilities — will see their salaries rise to at least $25 per hour over the next 10 years in a separate bill.


The vote capped a legislative session in California that once again showed the strength of organized labor in the nation's most populous state.

[markanton]

I can actually see a lot of fast food joints pulling out of California now. My wife is a general manager of a McDonald's in Florida and the metrics just don't add up. Very few of the McDonald's will remain open in California because of the unprofitability.

[markmartinez]

Bring on the robots. Dems will never learn.