Mexican-style grilled chicken chain with citrus-marinated chicken
AB1228 raised California fast food wages 25 percent overnight. Two years later, the apocalypse did not arrive, but neither did the workers' paradise. Here is what the data actually shows, what operators did to survive, and what every other state should learn.
March 19, 2026
Operating a quick-service restaurant chain across multiple states has always meant juggling different regulations. But as the gap between the federal $7.25 minimum and California's $20 fast-food floor widens to nearly triple, franchisees are confronting a labor cost landscape that demands radically different playbooks depending on which side of a state line a restaurant sits on.
March 18, 2026