Proposed California bill would mandate double pay on holidays

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- This Thanksgiving, thousands of Valley shoppers are expected to show up ready to shell out a lot of cash. And now a state lawmaker is pushing for more money for all employees who work on traditional holidays.

"If you are tearing people away from their family, if you're making them work, then at least they should be compensated fairly," said Democratic State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.

Gonzalez says the goal of her new bill is to give those who work holidays double pay.

Shoppers had very different opinions on the move to beef up paychecks.

"Double time just sounds like it would be giving them extra. There are a lot of people still without jobs," said Devin Arnold.

"I think if they're forced to work on the holidays they should get double pay just because it is something they have to do. If it's something they volunteer for, I wouldn't say they get double pay," said Roxanne Zaro.

Target and Best Buy declined to comment about the upcoming legislation, but a spokesperson for Walmart said the company already offers employees what equals out to be an extra day's pay.

Craig Scharton of Peeve's Public House says the legislation will hurt small businesses like his restaurant, which serves up traditional turkey dinner on Thursday.

"Employee costs are still our highest expense by a pretty fair amount, so if that were the case it wouldn't make sense to be open tomorrow," said Scharton.

Assemblywoman Gonzalez will introduce the bill to lawmakers on December 1.