In September of last year, Gavin Newsom signed legislation increasing the minimum wage for fast-food employees to $20 per hour, beginning April 1, 2024. The legislation, AB 1228, was carried by Assemblyman Chris R. Holden (D-Pasadena). It authorizes the Fast-Food Council to set fast-food restaurant standards for minimum wage, and develop proposals for other working conditions, including health and safety standards and training.
At the time, both Newsom and Holden tried to sound very noble. Newsom said this:
California is home to more than 500,000 fast-food workers who for decades have been fighting for higher wages and better working conditions. Today, we take one step closer to fairer wages, safer and healthier working conditions, and better training by giving hardworking fast-food workers a stronger voice and seat at the table.
Then Holden chimed in:
Today, we witnessed the signing of one of the most impactful fast food wage laws that this country has ever seen. We did not just raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour for fast food workers. We helped a father or mother feed their children, we helped a student put gas in their car, and helped a grandparent get their grandchild a birthday gift. Last month, when we were knee deep in negotiations, hundreds of workers slept in their cars and missed pay days to come give their testimony in committee and defend their livelihood. Sacrifice, dedication, and the power of a government who serves its people is what got us to this moment. My goal for AB 1228 was to bring relief and solutions where they were needed and together with my colleagues and Governor Newsom, that is what we have done. Thank you to the SEIU and all who supported this important effort. We, as a state, should be proud.
This wonder bill that Newsom and Holden are so proud of will eventually cost thousands of jobs. Pizza Hut alone has laid off between 1,000 and 1,300 delivery drivers already. Not to mention that restaurants are planning on raising prices to compensate for the increased labor costs.
However, this bill has a strange loophole “baked” into it. Known as the bakery exemption, it excluded “chains that baked bread and sell it as a standalone item," an exclusion that seems extremely nonsensical to be included in such a bill. The bizarre carve-out means that Panera Bread can continue paying its employees the current rate of $16 per hour.
However, by coincidence (cough, cough), one of Newsom’s longtime friends, Greg Flynn, just happens to own two dozen Panera Bread franchise locations across California, Bloomberg reported.
Flynn, who also attended the same high school as Newsom, also happens to have contributed at least $164,800 to Newsom’s 2021 anti-recall campaign and his 2022 reelection, the New York Post reported.
Newsmax host Chris Plante, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, The Washington Times opinion editor and Fox Contributor Charles Hurt, and Fox News host Greg Gutfeld were all sarcastically critical of Newsom’s baked bread favoritism.
Plante blasted Newsom and this pandering legislation.
Gavin Newsom has a new campaign slogan: “Give me your money, and you'll be exempt from all of my ridiculous, terrible, bad policy ideas. Every other restaurant owner has the same problem, fast food or otherwise, that everything is more expensive. Food is more expensive, labor is more expensive, and energy is more expensive. Electricity is up 27 percent just since Joe Biden took office. This item is about a corrupt Democrat governor, creating a carve-out for a buddy of his who is really rich and can probably afford to pay more.
Echoing Plante’s remarks, Fox’s Laura Ingraham criticized this “strange carveout” that benefitted a donor on an edition of The Ingraham Angle. Ingraham’s guest, Fox Contributor Charles Hurt, criticized Newsom for this exemption and for supporting this job-killing law in the first place.
There's nothing in the world more damaging to workers than raising the minimum wage like this because, of course, instead of having an $18-an-hour job, they have no job at all.
He then expanded his criticism of Newsom for shielding his friend from the new law.
A grease ball like Gavin Newsom comes out and makes a carve-out for his multibillionaire friend so that his multibillionaire friend can keep a few more dollars in his pocket instead of giving it to those workers that Gavin Newsom claims he cares about and claims he wants to help, but it's not going to help anyway because they're just going to lose their jobs.
Greg Gutfeld mocked Newsom on an edition of Gutfeld! for the exemption before exposing the governor. Gutfeld played a clip where Newsom used a phrase about questionable legislating calling it “the sausage-making of politics” to describe the process.
The phrase refers to the unpleasant way in which a process is carried out behind the scenes. When someone says, "You don’t want to know how the sausage is made," it’s usually referring to something gross. But, also it’s how politics is done. Gavin spoke the truth, when he makes sausage, he means making deals for his donor pals, so they are exempt from the rules he enforces for others. It's the whole reason people like Gavin get into politics and why billionaires remain friends with people like Gavin, so they are immune from the political punishment they actually support.
So, the trick to avoiding Newsom’s “half-baked” laws is apparently to donate a lot of “dough” to his campaign funds. That’s important information that anyone who owns a food business “kneads” to know.
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