Newsom Puts People Through the Sausage Grinder

When quick meals eating places throughout California have to begin paying employees $20 per hour on April 1, one main chain shall be exempted from the mandate—and it simply so occurs to have a connection to a longtime buddy and donor to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Panera Bread is poised to get a lift from a weird clause within the fast-food minimal wage regulation that exempts “chains that bake bread and promote it as a standalone merchandise,” Bloomberg stories, including that “Newsom pushed for that break, in accordance with folks conversant in the matter.”

That is from Eric Boehm, “Why Is Panera Exempted From California’s New Minimal Wage Regulation?” Motive, February 28, 2024.

And Newsom sort of admits, in his sleazy method, that he did a buddy a favor:

Requested straight concerning the bakery exemption at a press convention final yr, Newsom mentioned it was “a part of the sausage making” of the legislative course of. “We went backwards and forwards, and it was a part of the negotiation,” he added.

Happily, Bloomberg was on it:

Bloomberg‘s reporting suggests it was one thing Newsom sought in these negotiations: The bakery carve-out “was adopted as a way of successful the governor’s help for the laws, mentioned an individual with information of the discussions. The rationale was the governor’s longstanding relationship with a Panera franchisee, the individual mentioned.”