SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state’s Democratic leaders that most of the often overlooked workforce are the primary earners for their low-income households.

When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have the highest guaranteed base salary in the industry. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law Thursday amid a throng of cheering workers and labor leaders at an event in Los Angeles. Newsom dismissed the popular view that fast food jobs are meant for teenagers to have their first experience in the workforce.

“That’s a romanticized version of a world that doesn’t exist,” Newsom said. “We have the opportunity to reward that contribution, reward that sacrifice and stabilise an industry.”

Newsom’s signature reflects the power and influence of labor unions in the nation’s most populous state, which have worked to organise fast food workers in an attempt to improve their wages and working conditions.

It also settles — for now, at least — a fight between labor and business groups over how to regulate the industry. In exchange for higher pay, labour unions have dropped their attempt to make fast food corporations liable for the misdeeds of their independent franchise operators in California, an action that could have upended the business model on which the industry is based. The industry, meanwhile, has agreed to pull a referendum related to worker wages off the 2024 ballot.

“That was a tectonic plate that had to be moved,” Newsom said, referring to what he said were the more than 100 hours of negotiations it took to reach an agreement on the bills in the final weeks of the state legislative session.

Newsom signing the law could win back some favor with organised labor, who sharply criticised him last week for vetoing a separate bill aimed at protecting the jobs of truck drivers amid the rise of self-driving technology. Unions have played a big part in Newsom’s political rise in California, offering a reliable source of campaign cash.

Newsom’s appearance in Los Angeles comes a day after Republican presidential candidates – but not Donald Trump – appeared at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for their second televised debate. Newsom, while denying any interest in a White House run, has positioned himself as a foil to GOP contenders and has traveled the country to criticise conservative positions on abortion and gun rights. His actions on hundreds of bills before him may be viewed through the lens of his future political ambitions.

The new minimum wage for fast food workers will apply to restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide, with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread.

Right now, California’s fast food workers earn an average of $16.60 per hour, or just over $34,000 per year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the California Poverty Measure for a family of four, a statistic calculated by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Equality that accounts for housing costs and publicly-funded benefits.

The new $20 minimum wage is just a starting point. The law creates a Fast Food Council that has the power to increase that wage each year through 2029 by 3.5 per cent or the change in averages for the U.S. Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower.