If you haven’t heard, the state of California has once again decided to raise its minimum wage. However, the new law includes an oddly specific exemption that only seems to benefit one person, Governor Gavin Newsom.
According to the FAST Act, all fast-food chains in the state are now being forced to raise their minimum wage to $20 an hour. If they don’t, they will face some rather devastating fines.
Naturally, many, such as Chipotle, have been forced to also raise food prices to compensate.
However, there is one exception to the rule.
It seems any fast-food chain that specifically bakes and sells bread as a stand-alone item doesn’t have to raise their minimum wage, or at least by not that much, Bloomberg reports.
Now, as you can imagine, there aren’t all that many fast-food joints that bake and sell their own bread. In fact, there’s really just one: Panera Bread. And the owner of more than a few Panera Breads in California, as well as some other restaurants, just happens to be a close friend and political donor to Newsom.
Billionaire Greg Flynn has apparently known and been close to Newsom since the two were in high school. And Flynn has reportedly been supporting Newsom financially through a series of vast sum donations since about 2014.
Needless to say, the oddly specific exemption has more than a few “scratching their head(s),” as head of the National Restaurant Association Michelle Korsmo says.
And things don’t look much better for Newsom or Flynn when it is pointed out that it was Newsom himself who proposed and pushed for the only exemption to the rule.
Of course, there is no actual proof that Newsom is providing his longtime friend and political donor special benefits to keep him in his good graces. But what else could the reasoning be? He likes baked bread?
What do you think?
