When California lawmakers passed AB 1228 back in 2023, they created something genuinely groundbreaking: the nation’s first fast food council. The goal was straightforward—bring together workers, union leaders, and franchisees to hammer out wages and working conditions for roughly half a million fast food employees across the state. The $20 minimum wage was already law. The council’s job was to keep the conversation moving.
Three years later, that conversation has basically stalled.
The council hasn’t met as a full group in nearly two years. It’s been without a chairperson for more than a year. Zero decisions have been made. And the most baffling part? The state budget allocated $1.1 million last year to hire four full-time staff members to support this thing. They’re hired, they’re showing up, they’re researching and drafting materials—but there are no actual meetings happening because there’s no one to run them.
Governor Gavin Newsom is supposed to appoint the next chair, and he addressed the delay during a press conference earlier this week. His response was candid, if not exactly reassuring:“We have 4,000, I think, appointments that I make, so there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds—quite literally—that have been vetted and they are just waiting for my final decision, and I am hopeful that’s in there as well.”Translation: it might happen soon, or it might not. The council’s law requires meetings at least every six months. That requirement hasn’t been met since 2024.
The consequences are real, even if they’re quiet. Gaby Campbell, a Handel’s Ice Cream franchisee, has spent years asking whether the fast food minimum wage law even applies to her business. She was told it was up to the council to decide. But the council isn’t deciding anything. Meanwhile, fast food workers are waiting to push for higher wages and address worker abuses—conversations the council is supposed to facilitate. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and State Senate Pro Tem Monique Limón, when asked if they plan to hold the Newsom administration accountable or enforce the law, simply declined to comment.
This is what gridlock looks like when nobody’s willing to push back. A mechanism designed to keep momentum on one of California’s most divisive labor issues is effectively frozen, caught between conflicting interests and bureaucratic limbo. The law is working. The council, designed to evolve it, is not.
About the Author
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
