California’s dirty trick to thwart voters on fast food wages

Last year, California passed a new law establishing a 10-person council to oversee certain labor matters in the state. The primary purpose of the council was to mandate a new minimum wage specific to certain industries, particularly fast-food restaurants. The council would be empowered to raise the minimum wage for those workers by nearly seven dollars to $22 per hour. But business groups that opposed the law quickly gathered enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot next year and the law could not be put into action until after the vote. That clearly frustrated the legislature, and now they’ve snuck a new provision into the state budget that might allow them to get around that roadblock and raise the wages anyway. (Associated Press)Read More