New California Fast Food Council Law Could Lead to Improved Job Quality

California’s new Fast Food Council law could encourage fast food restaurant owners in the state to improve job quality for workers and follow what’s known as a “high-road” employment strategy, MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Tom Kochan argued in a recent article for Fortune.com.

“A high-road business strategy,” Kochan explains in his article, “is one that can compete successfully by paying good wages and benefits because it achieves high productivity and low turnover through training and developing its talent, engaging its workforce in problem-solving and continuous improvement, treating people fairly, and respecting workers’ rights.”

In his Fortune column, Kochan makes the case that the new law, which creates a California “Fast Food Council” that will consist of business, worker, and government representatives and will set minimum employment standards for the fast food industry, “will level the playing field [in the fast food industry in California] and create pressure on low-paying firms to learn how to manage their businesses and workforce with high-road strategies.”

Read Kochan’s analysis.