this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12541208

Panera Bread is exempt from following one of California’s newest laws, according to multiple reports. The new law will raise fast-food workers’ minimum wage to $20 per hour and will take effect beginning April 1.

The new law doesn’t recognize places that operate “a bakery that produces for sale on the establishment’s premises bread” as fast food, according to the law’s text.

Why the line was drawn at bread remains unclear.

However, Newsom pushed for the exemption, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. One of the primary beneficiaries of the exemption is Greg Flynn, a billionaire and longtime Newsom donor who has two dozen Panera Bread locations in California.

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[–] Ghostalmedia 132 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I look forward to McDonald’s new fresh baked bread offerings.

[–] toolverine 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the South, McDonald's does offer scratch made biscuits. They're so good.

They're even better when the workers that make them can have at least minimum wage.

[–] NateNate60 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Which, in the South, is usually half of what it is in California

[–] Breezy 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair in California everything is double the price, plus everything also gives you cancer.

[–] jaybone 1 points 1 year ago

This sticker is known to the state of California to cause cancer. (Puts sticker on cancer warning sticker.)

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is the cost of living in comparison?

[–] clover@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In most of South Carolina you can still find houses for $100-150k.

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Which it’s 1/4-1/10 of the base price for houses in CA.

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 77 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out if Panera workers aren't even making as much as McDonald's workers... I suspect they'll either pay it in spite of the exemption or be forever understaffed

[–] danciestlobster 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I can't imagine being the literal lowest paying company in town will do them any favors

[–] laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Right?

I wonder how much they paid to keep from having to pay their workers a living wage... And then likely wind up having to anyway if they want to have enough staff to operate...

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 27 points 1 year ago

That or McDonald's starts focusing on baking bread.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

”NoBoDy waNTs tO wOrK anYMOrE!"

  • Panera owners, soon
[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Donuts, bagels, 85°, bahn mi shops, heck Safeway/Lucky's/Walmart?

That's a lot of exclusions and a LOT of already screwed over employees not getting a break.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 14 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't have a problem at all if every Californian baker joined a bakers union and stopped production.n

[–] Plastic_Ramses 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)
[–] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Depends on what degree the "on site bakery" needs to resemble an actual one.

I can see mcds adding a glass window with some muffins and calling that a "bakery" just to skirt the law.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Subway already bakes cookies. Starbucks bakes a bunch of stuff. I'm sure McDonald's would be happy to put a single tiny oven to bake their apple pies in each location.

[–] deur@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Um... subway also bakes the bread lol. They get the dough in boxes and bake them daily.

The cookies though, idk about Subway but McDonalds gets them premade and throws them in the oven for a bit.

[–] CheezyWeezle 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Apple pies aren't bread per the FDA definition of "bread", see here:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=136&showFR=1

These places would need to start producing full loaves to meet that definiton

[–] afraid_of_zombies 2 points 1 year ago

Baking a loaf once a day isn't all that hard especially if you just bought a bread maker. This could easily be like the era before internet porn where porn stores would have some regular books in the window.

[–] Maggoty 1 points 1 year ago

It's a state law. It's the definition there that matters.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago

"Sir, I ran the numbers. We can expand the restaurant to add ovens for the bakery to sell fresh bread. It'll cost us $2,000,000 for the expansion and we're projecting to lose half a million a year in operating costs. Or we can just pay our dozen employees an extra $2 an hour, making our employees happier, increasing retention rates, reducing training costs, and all in all just being the right thing to do "

"Good work, Johnson. I want those ovens up and running by Monday."

[–] TinfoilBeanieTech 3 points 1 year ago

put an easy bake oven next to the microwave, make one batch a day.

[–] xenoclast 0 points 1 year ago

Ding ding ding. Give this person a fresh pastry.

[–] AshMan85 56 points 1 year ago

What the actual fuck in corruption!

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 46 points 1 year ago

sounds like every business in california is gonna start making and selling 1 loaf of bread every day because of blatant corruption

[–] themeatbridge 41 points 1 year ago

Why should bakers make less than french fry cooks?

[–] NatakuNox 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lol they'll lose their employees faster than it takes to bake bread if every other business is paying more.

[–] brianorca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Until every other company figures out how to make and sell bread. "Would you like a McLoaf with your order?"

[–] LemmyKnowsBest 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

still a tricky debacle because there's no guarantee McDonald's will hire a former Panera employee, if McDonald's is not hiring because other positions are already full, including all customer orders taken from a robot kiosk.

[–] Cqrd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

McDonald's and Carl's Jr have been trying to replace employees with robots for orders for a very long time. They've never had much success because old people suck at using these kiosks and don't even bother trying

[–] Ghostalmedia 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s are article written by a bot? All the links feel like the trash sources that GPT4 tries to grab.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

The random ones interspersed throughout the article are to get you to read other stories for more ad views. If the links in the text point back to the same site, they're probably automated, for the same reason. The article text itself doesn't seem generated.

[–] HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

God damn it, Newsom. Do better.

[–] NutWrench 16 points 1 year ago

When you're a billionaire, laws are nothing more than recommendations.

[–] BlackNo1 16 points 1 year ago

i hate the usa so much

[–] jpreston2005 11 points 1 year ago

Sounds like Greg Flynn got his moneys worth.

Newsom corruption? I would have NEVER guessed clutches pearls

[–] NutWrench 3 points 1 year ago

California’s minimum wage is $16 per hour. Starting April 1, most fast-food restaurants must pay their workers at least $20 an hour under new legislation that Newsom signed last year, **but it does not apply to restaurants that have on-site bakeries and sell bread as a stand-alone menu item, **The Associated Press reported.

Panera doesn't make jet engines, either. WTF does that have to do with wages?

[–] Maggoty 1 points 1 year ago

Welcome to California. The most liberal state.

As long as you have a net worth more than 10 million USD...

[–] RizzRustbolt 1 points 1 year ago

He's from St. Louis?