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.

  • Ghostalmedia
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    13210 months ago

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

    • @toolverine
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      3710 months ago

      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
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        1010 months ago

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

        • @Breezy
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          810 months ago

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

          • @jaybone
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            110 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    7710 months ago

    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
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      4910 months ago

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

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months 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…

  • Ebby
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    10 months ago

    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
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      1410 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      3610 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        1510 months ago

        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.

          • @afraid_of_zombies
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            210 months 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
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            110 months ago

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

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      3410 months 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
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      310 months ago

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

    • @xenoclast
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      010 months ago

      Ding ding ding. Give this person a fresh pastry.

  • @AshMan85
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    5610 months ago

    What the actual fuck in corruption!

  • Alien Nathan Edward
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    4610 months ago

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

  • themeatbridge
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    4110 months ago

    Why should bakers make less than french fry cooks?

  • @NatakuNox
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    3610 months ago

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

    • brianorca
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      610 months ago

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

      • Neuromancer
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        -310 months ago

        This is the problem with crappy laws. McDonalds bakes rolls which are bread.

        I thought the bakery exemption was weird.

    • @LemmyKnowsBest
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      410 months ago

      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.

      • body_by_make
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        710 months 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
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    10 months ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      110 months 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.

  • NutWrench
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    1610 months ago

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

  • @BlackNo1
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    1610 months ago

    i hate the usa so much

  • @jpreston2005
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    1110 months ago

    Sounds like Greg Flynn got his moneys worth.

  • NutWrench
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    310 months 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?