New $20 Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers in California Set to Start Monday

LIVERMORE, Calif.—Most fast food workers in California will be paid at least $20 an hour beginning Monday when a new law is scheduled to kick in giving higher pay to a historically low-paying profession while threatening to raise prices in a state already known for its high cost of living. Democrats in the state Legislature passed the law last year in part as an acknowledgement that many of the more than 500,000 people who work in fast food restaurants are not teenagers earning some spending money, but adults working to support their families. That includes immigrants like Ingrid Vilorio, who said she started working at a McDonald’s shortly after arriving in the United States in 2019. Fast food was her full-time job until last year. Now, she works about eight hours per week at a Jack in the Box while working other jobs....