This isn’t the first time unions have tried to smear California’s fast food industry in an effort to push their broader organizing agenda. Each time, the claims make headlines, but the evidence quickly falls apart under scrutiny. The latest union-funded study – provocatively titled Rats, Roaches, & Rot: Worker Rights and the Path to Safer Food in California’s Fast Food Restaurants– follows the same pattern, using selective data to suggest a crisis where none exists. Despite claiming “widespread” safety violations across fast-food restaurants in California, the report’s own numbers tell a much smaller story.
Even a cursory review of the data shows just how narrow the report’s scope is. Its survey included just 338 fast-food workers and it supplemented those findings with three focus groups with a total of 22 participants. In an industry that employs more than a half-million people across California, this combined sample represents far less than 1% of workers. Labeling such limited results as “widespread” misrepresents the scale entirely and attempts to generalize from a sample that reflects only a sliver of California’s fast-food industry.
The report goes on to claim that its low violation totals reflect “inadequate enforcement” by “chronically understaffed” local agencies. But that interpretation ignores the reality of how California’s inspection system actually works. The state operates one of the most active and transparent food-safety programs in the country. In Los Angeles County alone, public health inspectors have conducted roughly 37,000 inspections per year on average since 2022.
To put the enforcement question in broader context, EPI analyzed California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) inspection data across major industries in 2024 (the last year for which we have full data), including those with high union density such as construction, manufacturing, and health care. The results show that fast-food restaurants account for just 1.7% of all workplace inspections statewide.
That small share of the total statewide inspections does not reflect neglect by regulators. It reflects how California targets enforcement toward industries with more frequent or severe safety concerns. Cal/OSHA guidelines specify that inspections occur when a complaint is filed or when there is a report of a safety or health hazard, serious injury, or fatality. The low share of inspections in fast-food aligns with that system of prioritization, not with any lack of oversight.
A broader look at Cal/OSHA data supports that conclusion. Since 2022, only about 233 fast-food restaurant locations in California have received a workplace-safety violation. With 34,575 total fast-food restaurants statewide as of early 2025, that represents less than 1% of all establishments.
The report also argues that violations are undercounted because employees fear employer-based retaliation. In reality, California already operates one of the most extensive and protective labor systems in the nation. The state’s labor code is uniquely complex, giving workers multiple avenues to report concerns without fear of retaliation. Through the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), and several online complaint portals, employees can directly pursue alleged violations or file anonymous reports. Data from thousands of PAGA lawsuits and state enforcement actions show that workers are actively using these tools — proof that California’s enforcement system is anything but passive.
The claims in this union-backed report might grab attention, but they overlook the data and that has real consequences. Misrepresenting isolated violations as a statewide crisis does not help workers or consumers; it undermines public confidence and fuels misguided policy.