By Jasmin Acosta and Regina Lerma | Special To The OBSERVER
A new law forces California restaurant owners to pay workers for mandatory food safety training certifications.
Sponsored by Sen. Monique Limón, Senate Bill 476 requires food facilities to pay their workers for the time it takes food handlers to complete their training, and for the training itself.
“If you think of sexual harassment training, for example, when someone has to do that, they are able to while they’re working. And the employer pays for the cost. So this is really about treating the training for restaurant workers equitably,” Limón said.
Under the new law, food industry employees can complete all necessary training under normal work hours and be compensated.
“You want your food server in California to be trained well, and you don’t want your food server to try to figure out who’s gonna pay for the training,” Limón said.
Limón said the cost employers will pay for training is far lower than that of fines or potential lawsuits for not abiding state regulations.
“We think that it’s a really good investment for business owners because it keeps the food safer. It prevents people from getting sick,” Limón said. “All of that is a protection and a good service to the restaurant; it means that they avoid lawsuits.”
A New York Times investigation published in early 2023 uncovered that the National Restaurant Association, a lobbying group for the food-service industry, raised more than $25 million from the fees it charged for its online certification program, ServSafe.
According to the Times, the fees employees were charged to complete the ServSafe online certification for a food handlers course were being used to fund a lobbying campaign against wage increases.
Katherine Paseman, campaign manager at nonprofit One Fair Wage, said the new law seeks fairness and dignity within the restaurant industry.
The Times investigation exposed ServSafe’s “huge monopoly” and shed light on the injustice, Paseman said.
“The restaurant association is the biggest lobbying group in D.C. keeping workers underpaid,” she said.
Organizations against the new law argue that it will raise costs on employers while they still are recovering from COVID-19 shutdowns and dealing with other problems such as inflation and employee shortages, according to a nonpartisan bill analysis.
The California Chamber of Commerce and the California Retailers Association, organizations against the bill, declined an interview on the new law.
Jot Condie, president of the California Restaurant Association, also did not respond to an interview request.
Krystal Kirtland, a server at Buffalo Wild Wings in Vallejo, took issue with the system in place before the law passed. “Not fair now that I know about it,” she said.
Kirtland made $2.50 in hourly base pay in Utah, where most of her income came from tips. She makes $15.50 hourly plus tips in California. Kirtland said she has regulars who tip her well, but that her wages go about as far as they went in Utah. She said most corporations are willing to pay for food server handlers cards, she said.
Elias Evans, a pizza chef at Michael’s New York Style Pizza in Stockton, supports the new law and believes employees should not have to pay the costs related to food training.
“We shouldn’t have to pay for a food handlers card with our own money,” Evans said. “They [employers] usually need you to start soon when you get hired but you need the training before you can start working with food.”
Evans said he paid $7 to take the food safety test and was given a week to show proof of his certification.
SB 602, introduced by then-state Sen. Alex Padilla in 2010 and approved by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires all food handlers to obtain a California food handler card within 30 days from the date of hire.
Padilla’s bill also requires that at least one food-handler training course and assessment cost no more than $15 and that at least one exam be offered online.
According to ServSafe’s website, the cost to complete a food safety training program to obtain a food handlers card is $15, requiring a passing score of 75% within three attempts. Certifications remain valid for three years and are renewable.
Sen. Limón said the cost of food certifications now lies in the hands of the California Restaurant Association.
“What they do, whether they drive the price down, whether they make it free or not, that’s going to be a decision that the Restaurant Association needs to make,” Limón said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was produced by Professor Philip Reese’s Sacramento State journalism students.