When fast-food restaurants across California are required to pay their workers $20 an hour starting April 1, one major chain will be exempted from the requirement, and that chain just happens to be a longtime friend. It has ties to donors to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Panera Bread is poised to gain momentum with a strange provision in the fast food minimum wage law that exempts „chain establishments that bake bread and sell it as a stand-alone product.“ bloomberg report„Mr. Newsom pushed for that breakthrough, according to people familiar with the matter.“
This is a message from Eric Boehm.Why is Panera exempt from California's new minimum wage law?” reasonFebruary 28, 2024.
And Newsom, in his own dirty way, seems to admit he asked his friend for a favor.
When I asked directly about the bakery exemption, last year's press conference, Newsom said this is „part of the sausage making“ of the legislative process. „We went back and forth, but that was part of the negotiation,“ he added.
Luckily, Bloomberg was on it.
bloomberg's report The bakery carve-out „was adopted as a way to gain the governor's support for the bill,“ said a person familiar with the discussions. The basis for that was the governor's long-standing relationship with Panera franchisees, officials said.