Could Fast Food Workers in New York State Soon Make $22 an Hour?

The food service industry has gone through changes in recent years, both at a state level here in New York and nationally.

Back in 2021, the minimum wage for fast food workers in New York State was raised to $15 per hour, which was a hot button topic across the state for a number of months, leading up to and after it was put into place.

But could that fast food minimum wage be increasing in the not-so-distant future in New York State? There's the potential it could and it could be kickstarted by California.

According to WKBW, the State of California passed AB 257, which is also called the FAST Recovery Act.

The bill could raise the minimum wage for fast food workers in California to $22 per hour, which would have huge ramifications on other states, and possibly New York.

Riley Lagasen with the Global Restaurant Industry Practice Group says that this could be passed into law by 2023 and impact the entire food service industry in the country.

There's a fear this will allow employers of chain restaurants to not hire as many workers and the cost of production will increase, which will also raise the price of food items for the customer.

Lagasen says that we could see the same traction and fight nationwide when the $15 an hour debate happened, which impacted New York State.

There are still some hurdles for California to officially raise fast food minimum wage to $22 per hour, and for that to dramatically impact other states such as New York, but it's becoming a real possibility that could change the food service industry once again.