Longtime Newsom Donor Owns Panera Bread, Which is Exempt From California Minimum Wage Increase
Weird how Newsom fought to exempt restaurants that bake their own bread and sell it as a standalone item from the bill. Hhmm….
California Gov. Gavin Newsom fought to exempt fast-food chains from the new minimum wage increase if the company baked its own bread and sold it as a standalone item.
The minimum wage will increase to $20.
But why? The first and only restaurant you think of is Panera Bread. From Bloomberg:
The specificity of the exemption has puzzled observers for months, especially after the governor told reporters last year that it came about as “part of the sausage-making” of politics. In response to detailed questions, Newsom’s office said the wage law was the “result of countless hours of negotiations with dozens of stakeholders over two years” — and will make a real difference for hundreds of thousands of Californians.
[Panera Bread owner Greg] Flynn, who has been involved in business dealings with Newsom in addition to contributing to the governor’s political campaigns, said in a brief conversation that he didn’t play a role in crafting the bread exemption. He didn’t respond to requests for comment about his connections to Newsom.
Flynn criticized the California bill once it came out. He claimed, “it would all but kill the franchising business model in the state.”
Someone told Bloomberg News that Flynn worked behind closed doors with Newsom’s aides to “reconsider” not classifying places like Panera as fast food.
The Service Employees International Union, the ones behind the bill, accepted a narrow scope that would leave out places that operate bakeries.
Someone (I don’t know if it is the same person as above) explained to Bloomberg News that the narrow scope happened due to the “governor’s longstanding relationship with a Panera Franchisee.”
The decision confused everyone, including the National Restaurant Association:
Michelle Korsmo, the head of the National Restaurant Association, told an industry conference last year that “everyone’s scratching their head” about the bread exemption. She described the provision as an example of why her organization’s members should develop political connections to seek better legislative outcomes.
“You may be celebrating or you may be lamenting the bakery exemption,” she said. “But remember, all of that comes through relationships.”
In December, Pizza Hut franchises announced layoffs of 1,200 delivery drivers across the state because of the new law.
I wonder if California would exempt Pizza Hut if it sold its dough.
Pizza Hut, owned by Taco Bell’s parent company Yum!, told Business Insider: “Our franchisees independently own and operate their restaurants in accordance with local market dynamics and comply with all federal, state, and local regulations while continuing to provide quality service and food to our customers via carryout and delivery.”
Flynn and Newsom went to the same high school, with the former three grades ahead.
Their business relationship starts in 2014:
A business connection goes back to 2014, when Flynn acquired a Napa Valley resort managed by Newsom’s hospitality company. Newsom, who was then serving as California’s lieutenant governor, reported an undisclosed amount of income from Flynn’s company that year. The management contract began under the previous owners, the Getty family trust, and Flynn decided not to renew it about a year into his ownership, said a person familiar with the decision.
Flynn is a regular donator to Newsom. He gave $100,000 to fight against the recall. Newsom got another $64,800 during his 2022 reelection campaign.
People close to Flynn told Bloomberg News he “has been known to tout his relationship with Newsom” and bragged “he can reach the governor via text.”
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Comments
Let them eat bread.
I thought carbs were bad for us?
the Guv also exempted SF bathhouses
I’d like to read up on that. Do you have any links you could share?
Thank you.
no, I’m not sharing my link
sorry
I see… thanks anyway.
down voting a joke
lmao
These kinds of patronage carve-outs are incredibly common in state laws of all kinds. It’s CRAZY courts have allowed them to escape 14A scrutiny. Instead, it’s equal protection under the law….unless you’re a friend of the governor, then you get separate, more favorable treatment. If there’s a minimum wage, it should apply to all employers, identically.
If the “result of countless hours of negotiations with dozens of stakeholders over two years” only produces a single beneficiary, what did those other stakeholders get?
Screwed…. ?
Cake.
I’m not sure this would stand up to scrutiny if challenged in the courts.
California courts?
Keep in mind, the judge gets his paycheck from the same place as Newsom, the Legislators, the California Attorney General, etc.
Well Newsom has proven he’s corrupt enough to fill the Big Guy’s shoes.
Except, he wants a 15% cut, up from the “Big Guy’s” 10% set-aside.
The ads write themselves:
noisome noi′səm
adjective
1) Offensive to the point of arousing disgust; foul.
2) Harmful or dangerous.
From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
Panera Bread is overpriced, I had a friend who owned a bakery. Italian, always bought his bread. It is best to patronize small local businesses,
We have a small Italian bakery that does cookies and bread around here.
It runs rings around Panera.
I have not been impressed by Panera lately. Local better franchises are Wildflower and Kneaders. Sprouts grocery store deli. And of course Mom&Pops.
Ate at Kneaders once. Had to wash the estrogen out of my duds from the decor alone.
1) How long has California, at pretty much all levels, been ruled by the Left with functionally no opposition?
2) When any one group, but particularly the Left, has such power without opposition; how long before corruption sets in?
3) In such a polity, ruled by the Left, what are the odds that the legal system will do anything to restore integrity?
Subotai Bahadur
Such brazen corruption. Greasy and vile Newsolini is so confident in the lapdog/trained seal/shill media’s protection of Dhimmi-crats from scrutiny, criticism or scandal, that he’ll just help out an old pal to a nice carve-out exception from the rules that apply to everyone else.
Typical Dhimmi-crat apparatchik corruption.
I’m not a fan of minimum wage increases because they are inflationary on cost of living and don’t do much good to help those they purport to help since everything ends up more expensive anyways. About the only people helped are the government coffers that siphon off a few more tax dollars from higher paychecks (until jobs are killed when prices hit their breaking point and the tax revenue drops off)
But even if I were a proponent of this, help me understand this logic. Fast food workers that flip five dollar burgers should get a wage increase, but upscale places just above the levels of fast food should somehow be able to pay their workers less?
The minimum wage never changes regardless of the law.
It’s always $0 per hour.
boom. comment of the week.
There’s a serious problem with this reporting. Greg Flynn does not own Panera Bread. The Reimann family does. Flynn is a franchisee of Panera, owning about two dozen Panera locations in California, as well as about 100 more elsewhere, and more than 1000 other franchise restaurants. So yes, he benefits from this, but those 24 locations are only 2% of his portfolio, so if they were to go under he would hardly miss them; plus, he owns many other franchises in California that are not exempted. So whatever is going on here, it’s not as simple as it’s being portrayed.
Here’s simple: differential and selective application of tax law. Nothing new, but no less bypassing equal protection.
Pedantry aside, the fact is that Panera Bread is exempt from the law. The photo also specifically states “Major Franchise Owner.”
So, we adults in the room can figure out that restaurants are by and large franchises, and that Panera Bread nationwide can rest assured that they won’t get a Bud Light level kick in the ass.
“Pedantry”. Nails it.
That’s not even close to a cogent economic analysis of the potential impact of this CA law on his portfolio.
But, for the sake of argument, if any government decided to selectively confiscate 2% of your portfolio and transfer it to others, let’s call it reparations, you’d be ok with that because it’s only 2% ?
The questions, Milhouse, are
a) does he have the wealth, and use that wealth, to influence the governor?
b) did he do so to gain an exemption for his businesses in California (be they two dozen or two thousand)
c) did he ‘repay’ the exemption through political donations?
It’s easy to pick at the edges of a story — the central issue here is the age-old use of improper political influence to gain filthy lucre…
If my competition has to pay more because their “classification” is not correct with the labor law, then I have a neat advantage… Since a large factor in the $20 Big Mac Meal is minimum wage labor cost, then my cheaper Minimum wage labor avoiding Panera Sandwich meal just might sell more–making more profit for me.
A distinction without a difference Milhouse
It’s still a blatant tax exemption carve-out, transparently designed to benefit a personal pal of Newsom.
That’s the issue at hand, not how many franchises the beneficiary of this tax carve-out owns, and, what percentage those franchises are, of his total holdings and portfolio.
And, whether the beneficiary owns one franchise, twenty, or, one hundred, he’s still financially benefiting from brazen political favoritism. The dollar amount of the benefit reaped is irrelevant
Sure, Jan. Let’s deflect by focusing on minutiae such as “who owns Panera Bread” vs “Panera Bread franchise owner,” and then term such minutiae as “a serious problem.”
Let’s NOT focus on the political and financial favoritism shown to one of Newsom’s major donors.
And yes… it is as simple as it’s being portrayed.
You’re just too suffused with your own pedantry and “sophistication” to see it.
I will disagree only in this: given how small a factor this is in his portfolio, maybe there is some other benefactor we should look for? Or maybe he didn’t have the clout to get his other franchises somehow exempted.
Yes, it’s still a stupid bit of crony “capitalism”.
Yes, it’s still a stupid bit of crony “capitalism”.
I appreciate your sentiment, but I think this is the only distinction that matters. The overall impact to Flynn’s portfolio is unimportant, contrary to Milhouse’s profligate pedanticism.
What IS important is that Newsom is engaging in political favoritism and, as you correctly note, “crony capitalism.”
That’s despicable and should be called out for what it is: deeply undemocratic.
Or maybe Flynn was just the front man?
Always having to explain things to Milhouse. It’s not about Greg Flynn going under, it’s about Newsom going under. Whether or what Flynn does or doesn’t own, or how much he owns or doesn’t own isn’t the point. He definitely owns Newsom. That’s the point
Easy fix. All fast food serves some kind bread with their sandwiches, tacos, breadsticks, etc.
Bake the buns, torta rolls, breadsticks and the like there in the store and sell them separately as individual menu items.
If you weren’t already doing that by September of last year, then it doesn’t count.
I would be willing to bet *every* fast food establishment such as Subway has sold at least *one* bun or roll standalone in the last few years. Just make it official, stick an entry on the store website, and poof. Instant bakery. I for one would be happy to stop by Subway on my way home from work to pick up a couple of their foot-long wheat bread buns for later decoration and consumption at home. Our local store makes very good bread.
Subway might manage that, as it bakes its bread on site. But Chez Mac and Wendy’s? Nope. They made a fairly tight exemption – which is why it so awful.
So – Subway starts selling loaves of their bread on Monday.
By Friday, every McDonalds et al in California will be offering fresh baked buns for sale.
It will only take the wage savings from 4 or 5 employees to pay for the equipment. In the long run it won’t matter a damn if you sell any bread; the savings will come from the saving in wages.
I can’t be sure without bothering to read the exact wording of the law, but I’m imaging a big surge in sales of “Home” Bread Maker machines if there’s no minimum volume of bread sales required.
* ” Our special recipe bread is baked to order – always fresh!- please place your order two hours in advance. Thank you!
Nope. They wrote it so only grandfathered businesses that sell bread as a separate item are exempt. (Have to have qualified before September of last year.)
We need a constitutional amendment that eliminates any and all carve-outs and exemptions for individuals, individual organizations, groups (demographic or otherwise), or classes. Especially that no legislature may exempt itself or any other branch or subdivision of gov’t.
If a corporation is considered a person under the law, then it stands to reason that all laws made should apply to all under the concept of, hmmmm equal protection under the law.
You are correct. No one should be exempted from any law, including the criminal class in Congress.
It amazes me that Nancy Pelosi and her criminal cohorts can amass millions of dollars using the roulette table called the stock market. Invidia is just the most recent affront to insider trading.
If bread, why not pies? Shari’s, for example, sells whole pies to take home, as do other restaurants that brag on their “homemade” pies.
Or desserts? I believe Olive Garden and Denny’s sells some for take-home.
Or is about the bread that poor people have to shoplift, per AOC?
I have a question. If all other similar restaurants are paying $20 an hour, how many people are going to take the jobs at the Paneras paying less than that? And how long will they stay? I’m not sure this will work out as the beneficiary of the exemption intended.
I am a Californian. I no longer patronize fast-food establishments.
When I graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Engineering, my salary was equivalent to $20/hour. The notion that a snot-nosed kid can earn that amount for slapping a burger together is insulting.
I will go to the bar & grill and get a burger there, for just a bit more money and a much nicer experience.
Clay Travis the talk show host has bitched several times that when he stops at a fast food joint to get sandwiches for his kids he shells out $60. I agree with him. I think he lives in TX.
With the advances in automation, there will be one guy running a fast-food joint, simply loading the ingredients for the robots.
All this ‘living wage’ nonsense. Screw them all.
Erronius
I am reminded of animal farm
“every animal is equal … some are more equal.”
may not be a direct quote
but its close…