Industries
Employment Lawyers for California Restaurant and Fast Food Workers
The fast food minimum wage is $20. Tips belong to employees, not managers. Off-the-clock prep is wage theft.
The $20 Fast-Food Minimum Wage
Under AB 1228 the fast-food minimum wage has been $20 an hour since April 2024 for national fast-food chains with 60 or more locations nationwide. There are limited exemptions, such as bakeries producing bread on site and grocery-embedded restaurants.
The Fast Food Council can raise the rate annually, so confirm the current figure.
Who is covered, in plain terms: the cashier at a franchised burger chain, yes. The family taqueria, no.
The knock-on math matters. Overtime, sick pay and premium pay all key off the higher rate, so underpaying the base contaminates every line of the pay stub.
Illustrative: paid $17.50 instead of $20 for 30 hours a week is $75 a week, about $3,900 a year, before liquidated damages double it.
The non-fast-food floor is the state minimum, $16.90 in 2026, with Los Angeles and other local ordinances above it. See minimum wage and off-the-clock work.
Tips Belong to You: Labor Code 351
Tips are the sole property of the employees they were left for. No owner or manager share, no deduction for credit-card processing fees, and credit-card tips are due no later than the next regular payday.
Tip pooling is legal among the chain of service, but any pool that includes managers or “the house” is theft. Anyone with hiring or firing power, an “agent,” stays out of the pool.
Evidence: pool sheets, POS tip reports, texts about tip-outs, and pay stubs showing tip-line deductions.
Split Shifts, Clopening, and the Schedule Games
Split-shift premium: one extra hour at minimum wage when your day splits into two blocks, unless your total pay already clears the threshold.
Reporting-time pay: sent home early after showing up means half the scheduled shift is paid, within a 2 to 4 hour range under Wage Order 5.
Clopening: closing past midnight and opening at 6 rarely violates a statute by itself. The violation lives in the unpaid minutes before clock-in and after clock-out.
Meal and Rest Break Penalty Calculator
Break violations are the most common wage claim in food service. One added hour of pay per workday, per violation type, for as long as it has been going on.
Off-The-Clock Prep and Closing Work
The pattern: you clock in when the line opens, but prep started 40 minutes earlier. The closing checklist runs after punch-out. A manager edits time entries to hit labour targets.
Time-shaving and rounding are discoverable, because POS login data contradicts edited timecards.
The Penalty Stack for One Employee
30 unpaid minutes a day at $20 is $10 a day, about $2,600 a year. Add break premiums. Add waiting time penalties at termination, $20 × 8 × 30 = $4,800.
Small daily theft, five-figure claims.
Harassment in Restaurants Happens More, and the Law Knows It
Hospitality carries among the highest rates of sexual harassment complaints of any private-sector industry.
The law’s response: under Government Code 12940(j), employer liability reaches customer conduct the employer knew about and failed to stop. Personal liability attaches to harassers themselves. SB 1300 lowered the “severe or pervasive” bar. And the one-employee threshold applies to harassment claims.
The franchise wrinkle: the franchisee is the employer, but corporate exposure can exist where control is deep.
Handled respectfully and confidentially. See sexual harassment. Note that the EFAA means sexual harassment claims cannot be forced into arbitration. See forced arbitration.
Where We Fight for Restaurant Workers
Los Angeles, the highest restaurant density in the state, with Los Angeles Superior Court venue. See Los Angeles, plus the LA sexual harassment and unpaid overtime pages.
Orange County. See Orange County.
Deadlines
Wage and tip claims run 3 years, or 4 through the UCL. Harassment claims under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the state’s main workplace discrimination law, run 3 years to the Civil Rights Department, then 1 year to sue. PAGA runs 1 year plus 65 days.
What to Do Right Now
- Photograph your posted schedule and time punches weekly. Managers edit records.
- Save pay stubs and POS tip reports to your phone.
- Keep a shift log: actual start, actual end, breaks taken or missed.
- Report harassment in writing, even by text, and screenshot the reply.
- Do not sign anything at termination before a review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the $20 Wage Apply to My Restaurant?
It turns on the 60-location national chain test and the exemptions. Send us a pay stub and we will check.
My manager takes from the tip pool. Is that legal?
No. Agents, meaning anyone with hiring or firing power, are barred from tip pools under Labor Code 351.
Can They Deduct Credit Card Fees From My Tips?
No. Your full tip is due by the next payday.
I prep before clocking in. Is that a claim?
Yes. All hours worked must be paid.
A customer keeps harassing me and my manager laughs it off. What are my rights?
The employer can be liable for known third-party harassment. Report it in writing.
What Is a Split-Shift Premium?
One extra hour at minimum wage when your day splits into two blocks, unless total pay already clears the threshold.
Can My Boss Cut My Hours Because I Complained About Pay?
That is retaliation under Labor Code 98.6. Document the timeline. See retaliation.
Employment Law Resources
- California DIR, fast-food minimum wage under AB 1228: dir.ca.gov
- Labor Code 351, tips are employee property: leginfo
- California Civil Rights Department, sexual harassment under FEHA: calcivilrights.ca.gov
- U.S. EEOC, harassment data: eeoc.gov
Tell Us What Happened
One business day for a response. You pay nothing unless we win.