One in 17 homeless people in California has a job in the fast food industry

There are currently more than 10,000 homeless people in California who work in the fast food industry, a new economic study says.

The research, conducted by economic round table, found that 3,595 homeless people work for fast food restaurants in Los Angeles County alone.

The study’s co-author and Economic Roundtable chair Daniel Flaming said that while many work unpaid in an industry that is highly profitable, low wages and a lack of full-time jobs prevent many workers from working their way out of poverty.

Flaming estimated that 11 percent of California’s homeless workers. His organization used census data to complete the investigation. a separate study conducted by UCLA in 2020 found that 18 percent of people in Los Angeles’ homeless shelter system were employed.

The minimum wage for workers in California is $15.50 per hour, in the city of Los Angeles it is $16.04 per hour. The state now has nearly a third of all homeless people in the United States.

The recent study found that the average homeless person in the fast food industry, who fills positions such as line cook and cashier, earned about $15,000 a year. Most work only 26 hours a week, 1,300 a year, and struggle to find full-time hours.

Due to these tight economic restrictions, many are struggling to pay their rent or housing.

“Emergencies are coming. You have to fix the car you drive to work to get your income. And that will cost you tons of money. These are very fragile solutions and they break down easily,” said Flaming LAist.

My hours have been cut. I only earn minimum wage. I also get wage theft. I had been given a new promotion, but was not paid for the promotion… I’m a little embarrassed that I work for a company that can’t even pay me what’s owed to me,” fast food worker and mother-of-six told Anneisha Williams ABC Los Angeles.

In California, nearly 80 percent of fast food workers are people of color, more than 60 percent are Latino, and two-thirds are female.

Legislation signed in September in the Golden State would have set the state on track to raise wages for fast food workers to $22 an hour.

The law was met with strong opposition from restaurant industry groups who successfully pushed for a referendum on it in 2024.

The referendum generated more than 623,000 valid voter signatures for the November 5, 2024 electoral vote.

The law, passed last year as the first in the nation, establishes a 10-member council with the power to set minimum wages, hours and working conditions standards for California’s fast food workers. It would affect some 550,000 workers statewide.

Two industry groups, the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association, promoted the referendum that would leave its fate to voters.

Opponents, who raised more than $10 million last year to fund the referendum campaign, argue the law would tax chain restaurant owners and drive up the cost of food.

On December 30, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law while signatures on ballots were counted and verified.

The measure would have boosted employee wages to as much as $22 an hour by the end of this year for chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks with 100 or more locations nationwide.

Union groups supported the law and the referendum battle could turn into a bitter and costly one, with both sides spending hundreds of millions of dollars to entice voters.

The Service Employees International Union remained confident that the law will survive the election.

“Despite fast food companies’ attempts to disrupt the referendum process, we know California voters see through their tricks,” SEIU President Mary Kay Henderson said in a statement. “No company is more powerful than half a million workers uniting to demand a seat at the table.”

Meanwhile, the state of California continues to fight its homeless problem.

Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with potential presidential aspirations, briefly withheld $1 billion in funding from local governments because he was unhappy with their plans to reduce homelessness.

In March, the state sued the city of Huntington Beach, accusing leaders of flouting state housing laws that require them to build 13,000 new homes over the next eight years.

In the same month, Newsom announced that California will spend about $30 million this year to build 1,200 tiny homes across the state.

The houses, some as small as 120 square feet, can be assembled in 90 minutes and cost a fraction of what it takes to build permanent homes.

Newsom said the homes could create space to clear out homeless camps that have sprung up in the state’s major cities. Federal courts have ruled that cities cannot evacuate homeless camps if shelter beds are not available.

“We need to focus more energy and precision on tackling encampments,” Newsom said. “There is no humanity there. People are dying on our watch.”