After failing to qualify for the ballot in 2022, a proposal to raise California’s minimum wage will be decided on by voters in November.
Called the California Living Wage Act, the ballot measure proposes a $2 increase from the state’s current minimum wage, $16.
Should the majority of voters support Proposition 32, the minimum wage will increase to $18 per hour — the nation’s highest — by 2026 for all employers, although the time frame would vary depending on a company’s size. For employers with 26 or more workers, the minimum wage would increase Jan. 1, 2025, and for employers with 25 or fewer workers, the increase would be delayed by a year.
Starting in 2027, annual increases would be adjusted according to the cost of living.
The effort is led by the “Yes on California Living Wage Act” campaign, also known as the Working Hero Action for the Living Wage Act PAC, and is endorsed by several workers’ unions, including AFSCME California PEOPLE, the California Faculty Association, Unite Here Local 11 and SEIU Local 87.
The initiative was brought forth in 2021 by Joe Sanberg, a millionaire investor and anti-poverty activist based in Los Angeles.
“If you work full time, you should be able to live with full financial security, and that’s not the case in California,” Sanberg told the LA Times then. “We were a leader in pushing for a $15 minimum wage, but now we have to move the ball forward and farther. It’s overdue for $18.”
At the time, the country was in the midst of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which Sanberg said “highlighted how many Californians working full-time jobs still cannot afford basic needs.”
John Kabateck, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, is opposed to the measure.
“Market, not politicians and bureaucrats, ought to be dictating the financial growth and success of working men and women in California. Let the market dictate this and let’s stop sending the message that mediocrity is a pathway to professional success in California,” he said.
