Despite taxpayer funding and a legal mandate to convene, the state’s fast-food wage council mainly sat dormant with no future meetings scheduled.
Officials insist work is happening behind the scenes, even as the council missed required meetings and remains without a chair.
California taxpayers have funded roughly $1.1 million last year to support four staff positions for the California Fast Food Council, a body created by the legislature to set wages and industry standards for fast food workers.
But the council has not met as a whole body in 2025 nor produced substantive decisions.
The council was re-established under Assembly Bill 1228 (signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023) to oversee annual minimum wages and standards in the fast food industry after a referendum effort threatened an earlier law.
The statute set a $20-per-hour minimum wage for workers at qualifying restaurants, effective April 1, 2024, and created a nine-member council split evenly between labor and business representatives, with a neutral chair.
According to state budget records, the Department of Finance allocated $1.1 million in 2025 to fund council staffing. Yet, the nine-member council has not convened a full session since February, and the chair position has been vacant since May.
The law’s requirement that the council meet at least every six months has not been satisfied, and no future meeting date is publicly listed.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Industrial Relations told reporters that staff continue “day-to-day work supporting the council’s mission” and that unspent funds remain in its budget for future needs, with meetings to resume once a new chair is appointed.
California Republicans have blasted the council as emblematic of Sacramento’s disconnect from everyday priorities.
“Californians are scraping to get by, and Sacramento just lit $1.1 M on fire for a fast-food council that accomplished absolutely NOTHING,” said GOP Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez in an X post.
