NEW STUDY: OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF LOS ANGELES FAST FOOD WORKERS OPPOSE BURDENSOME TRAINING MANDATE, RAISE SERIOUS PRIVACY CONCERNS 

Sacramento, CA – A new survey of 1,246 randomly selected Los Angeles fast food workers conducted by Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, in conjunction with Beacon Economics, shows that fast food workers overwhelmingly oppose arduous training requirements being considered by the Los Angeles City Council and have significant concerns about being required to share their personal information with outside organizations. 

The survey found that 70.6% of fast food workers oppose the City’s proposed six-hour, in-person training requirement administered by an outside third party. Instead, workers overwhelmingly prefer flexible online training they can complete on their own schedule (76.5%), say flexibility is important (83.8%), and believe training should last three hours or less (67.3%). 

“The City Council is pushing a proposal that we don’t want or have time for,” said Luvia H., Los Angeles fast food worker. “Between work, school and family responsibilities, I don’t have six extra hours for an off-site training, and neither do my coworkers. This proposal ignores the realities of our everyday lives. If City leaders really want to help workers, they should stop making decisions for us and start listening to us.” 

The survey also found widespread concern over the City’s proposal to require workers to provide personal information to outside organizations. Nearly three out of four workers (74.6%) said they are concerned about sharing their personal information with a third-party training provider. 

“The City is asking restaurants to pay for another costly mandate that workers themselves overwhelmingly oppose,” said Nareh S., Los Angeles restaurant owner. “It’s hard to understand why restaurants are being singled out to shoulder another expense for a program employees don’t even want. This ordinance is unnecessary, unfair, and comes at the worst possible time for local small businesses.”

“I do not want to be forced to share my personal information with an outside organization to complete the mandatory training,” said Edgar M., Los Angeles fast food worker. “Workers and our families still live in fear of the federal raids going on. The last thing I want is a City requirement that makes me hand over my personal information to people I don’t even know.” 

Workers also overwhelmingly trust their employers—not outside organizations—to provide training. Nearly 80% said they trust either their employer (53.3%) or an employer-selected trainer (26.2%), while just 4.3% trust an outside organization and only 3.1% trust a union to conduct the training. 

Los Angeles is home to more than 1,500 quick-service restaurants, the overwhelming majority of which are independently owned small businesses operated by people of color, immigrants and women. Since California’s $20/hour fast food minimum wage took effect, more than 1,150 restaurants have shut down across the City of Los Angeles, with owners citing the wage mandate and rising operating costs as key factors. Yet instead of helping neighborhood restaurants recover, the Los Angeles City Council is considering another costly ordinance that workers overwhelmingly oppose and small businesses simply can’t afford. 

The ordinance, which is expected to be heard in the Council’s Economic Development & Jobs Committee as early as August 18, would: 

• Mandate new rigid scheduling requirements that limit employee flexibility.
•  Require restaurants to send employees off-site to complete unnecessary and duplicative training that workers overwhelmingly oppose.
• Jeopardize employee privacy.

A release issued by Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy and Beacon Economics said:

“As the Los Angeles City Council considers expanding workplace training requirements for fast food workers, understanding the experiences and preferences of these workers is crucial to evaluating whether the proposals align with the needs and realities of the workforce they are intended to serve,” said Stafford Nichols, Research Manager at Beacon Economics. “The empirical evidence is quite clear… workers do not want long, in-person trainings delivered by external organizations.” 

“At Pepperdine, we emphasize the importance of keeping the ‘public’ in ‘public policy,’ which means an essential element of good policymaking is listening to the voices that make up the communities we serve,” said Pete Peterson, Dean of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. “This study does just that, bringing collective insights to the table so our leaders can make the best possible decisions.”

Read the full survey and key findings here.