Welcome to the March 10-14 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business advocacy team in Sacramento.

The Legislature

From the 2,358 bills making it past the February 21 introduction deadline, Tim Taylor, NFIB California’s legislative and policy director, has narrowed to 186 the measures directly affecting or possibly affecting small businesses. And from those 186 bills, 19 are deserving special consideration now.

This edition of the Main Street Minute and all subsequent ones will highlight bills that have received recent NFIB activity.

For this edition, we highlight Senate Bill 84, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Sens. Roger Niello, Angelique Ashby, and Anna Caballero, which “would prohibit a construction-related accessibility claim for statutory damages from being initiated in a legal proceeding against a defendant who employs 50 or fewer individuals … unless the defendant has been served with a letter specifying each alleged violation, and the alleged violations have not been corrected within 120 days of service of the letter.”

In a coalition letter of support sent last Tuesday (March 4) to Senator Niello that NFIB was part of, it pointed out, “Due to California’s current statutory framework for construction-related accessibility claims, businesses, especially small businesses, have been targeted by a limited group of attorneys to leverage settlements for technical construction-related standards, regardless of whether the alleged violation actually impedes physical access to the facility for patrons with disabilities. Alleged violations for something as simple as not having the appropriate signage or symbol can prompt a claim even when the alleged violations can be quickly resolved. Unfortunately, businesses are pressured into paying settlements for these lawsuits instead of focusing their financial resources on improving access at their place of business. This is especially true for small businesses, which have limited resources.”

NFIB members in the construction industry account for 16% of the total membership, making them the third highest group, according to the 2024 NFIB Tax Survey.

The New Gold Rush—Lawsuits

Related to the story above, check out the Let the Lawsuit Floodgates Open section of the February 24-28 edition of the Main Street Minute.

Here We Go Again

What is it about independent contractors that so nettlers this state’s courts and Legislature?

Is there any damage left to be done to them after the state Supreme Court’s ABC test and Assembly Bill 5 did their best to handicap their abilities to make their own livelihoods?

Apparently, Sen. Elena Durazo thinks there are a few more swift kicks to get in. Her Senate Bill 809 reminds everyone, “Existing law, as established in the case of Dynamex Operations W. v. Superior Court (2018) … creates a presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits arising under wage orders issued by the Industrial Welfare Commission. Existing law requires a 3-part test, commonly known as the “ABC” test, to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors for those purposes.”

Now for the assault, “This bill would provide that mere ownership of a vehicle, including a personal vehicle or a commercial vehicle, or other tools, used by a person in providing labor or services for remuneration does not make that person an independent contractor.”

NFIB will fight this bill.

Good News! It Isn’t Working

“One year into California’s landmark effort to regulate conditions for more than a half-million fast food workers, the state council appointed to oversee the industry has barely settled on how to conduct meetings,” reports CalMatters.

“The nine-member fast food council, composed of business owners, workers and union representatives, recently decided to consider a cost-of-living adjustment to the $20 fast food minimum wage that went into effect last April. At its yet-unscheduled next meeting, it plans to discuss raising that requirement by 3.5% or last year’s rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

“But it won’t do much more than that. After two marathon meetings in January and February in which a smaller group of the council members listened to hours of comments from workers and their allies, and restaurant owners and their allies, the council chair put the raise on the next agenda for discussion only — not a vote. That’s the closest the council has gotten to a policy decision since it began meeting last March.”

For a stroll down memory lane, check out this March 18-22, 2024, edition of the Main Street Minute, which reported:

— “On September 28, 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 1228, the Fast Food Restaurant Industry legislation that raises the hourly minimum wage rate for certain fast food workers to $20 effective April 1, 2024,” according to the state Dept. of Industrial Relations (DIR), under whose watch the council will operate.

— “In addition, the legislation establishes a Fast Food Council within DIR to establish an hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees and develop standards, rules, and regulations for the fast food industry.”

Nothing in California is ever simple and straightforward. AB 1228 is the revised AB 257, which The Sacramento Bee pointed out:

— “The governor signed Assembly Bill 257 in 2022 to create the council, and fast food companies and franchise owners quickly moved to challenge it with a 2024 ballot measure campaign.

— “Labor advocates, mostly represented by Service Employees International Union, and industry leaders in 2023 brokered a compromise that led fast food companies to drop the initiative to repeal AB 257.

— “[Assemblyman Chris] Holden picked up AB 257 in 2022 from former San Diego Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher after an earlier version died in 2021. Last year’s deal required him to revise his 2023 follow up measure, Assembly Bill 1228. The bill would have held fast food companies and franchise owners jointly liable for workplace abuses. 

— “Holden and labor advocates agreed to remove joint liability in exchange for a $20 per hour fast food worker minimum wage and allowing a weakened version of the council to move forward.”

NFIB fiercely opposed both iterations of this terrible law. More about AB 1228, the Panera bread scandal that ensued, and comment from NFIB State Director John Kabateck can be read in this story in The Center Square.

Meanwhile, The Orange County Register says the state should throw in the towel in this editorial, Abolish the absurd Fast Food Council.

Mark Your Calendars

Thursday, March 20, at 10 a.m., Ben Ebbink, one of California’s leading labor and employment law attorneys will be NFIB California’s special guest at a webinar for members about which laws for 2025 are the most important ones for small business, and which compliance issues that have carried over from prior years still remain.

Ebbink is a partner in the Sacramento office of Fisher & Phillips LLP and legislative advocate and principal of FP Advocacy LLC.  He brings more than two decades of experience in labor and employment law to the firms he counsels, including 15 years as chief consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment.

This will be Ebbink’s fifth webinar for NFIB. Your invitation to join the March 20 webinar will be emailed to you soon. Watch for it.

Quotes from Here and There

On his 50th anniversary covering the State Capitol, former Sacramento Union, former Sacramento Bee, and current CalMatters reporter and columnist Dan Walters observes, “… today’s Legislature is less overtly corrupt but more secretive and less deliberative than it was 50 years ago. Committee hearings on bills were genuinely pertinent then but are mostly meaningless charades now.

“California has nearly twice as many people as it did in 1975 and its demographic attributes and its economy have undergone massive transformations. Sadly, the Capitol’s ability — or willingness — to deal with the political issues arising out of those changes has diminished.”

National

Highlights from NFIB Federal Government Relations Principal Josselin Castillo’s weekly report

— NFIB released a statement following the Trump Administration’s suspension of enforcement, penalties and fines against small businesses who do not comply with the Beneficial Ownership Information reporting rule mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act.

— NFIB released a statement following President Trump’s Joint Session of Congress address: “Without Congressional action, nine out of 10 small businesses will be hit with a massive tax hike later this year,” said NFIB’s President Brad Close.

— NFIB sent letters to House and Senate leaders strongly opposing the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2025.

— NFIB sent a letter of support on Rep. Neal Dunn’s Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair (REPAIR) Act. Principal of Federal Government Relations Andrea McGee said, “The REPAIR Act is a much-needed piece of bipartisan legislation to increase competition in the automotive repair industry and keep money in consumers’ pockets.

Next Main Street Minute, March 17. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.