Californians will see the minimum wage increase to $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1. The adjustment — a boost of 40 cents per hour — was calculated in August by the Department of Finance as part of its minimum wage annual review required by state law.
California has been raising its minimum wage over the past decade. Former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 signed a watershed law to increase minimum wage from $10.50 per hour to $15 per hour, plus annual adjustments for inflation.
The current rate of $16.50 per hour suggests that a minimum wage worker needs to work 98 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental at fair market rent in California, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
California is one of 19 states to raise minimum wages in 2026, according to payroll company ADP. Cities and counties can also set their own minimum wages. This year, over two dozen local jurisdictions have increased local minimum wages. West Hollywood will have a $20.25 minimum wage starting in January — the highest of any California city, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
Voters last November narrowly rejected a ballot measure that would have increased the minimum wage to $18 per hour. But some low-wage workers this year have successfully lobbied for bumps in pay in specific industries.
Under laws Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2023, fast food workers earn a minimum wage wage of $20 an hour and health care workers are on track to make $25 an hour.
That momentum extended to Los Angeles hotel and airport employees. Labor organizers in May secured a city minimum wage increase to $30 per hour for those workers by the 2028 Olympics. Large businesses fought back, arguing that wage hikes will only increase challenges for the tourism industry, which is still struggling to find its footing after the pandemic.
After failing to gather enough signatures for a ballot measure to repeal the new minimum wage, business groups later filed a different measure that could gut millions of dollars of revenue from the city’s general fund.
Following the move, Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson this month introduced a motion to delay the full wage increase from taking effect until 2030, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
Labor leaders rebuked the motion, calling it “repulsive.”
“You can’t threaten to blow a hole in our budget and then the only way to stop it is on the backs of workers,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of the union that represents many hotel workers, UNITE HERE Local 11. “That kind of raw extortion and shakedown has no place in our city.”
According to Peterson, a coalition of community organizations and unions are beginning to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage to $30 per hour for all workers in Los Angeles.
“The power is everyone together,” said Peterson. “Working people need help and raising wages is the easiest, most straightforward thing to do. Going up 40 cents per hour in 2026 doesn’t move the needle at all.”
Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow with CalMatters.
With this increase I also expect excellent customer service.
Yes the minimum wage goes up , rent goes up so does the cost to suppliers as does the cost of employers so nobody really gets a pay raise and the real losers are the people on Social Security and fixed incomes! The numbers don’t make sense!
We have got to live in the absolute dumbest political state in the world. Another minimum wage increase means more rising costs that don’t match your hourly raise so you are actually getting more broke. Tens of thousands businesses have closed their doors, many of whom left the state contributing to a decrease in the population of California, meaning less tax money, which libtards will never let happen. They’re so smart, they raise taxes to compensate sending even more packing. Super cool retards.
Social Security is going up 2.8% next month, if you call that a “fixed income”.
It’s unrealistic to compare a minimum wage with a one-bedroom rental. When I was working for minimum wage, my goal was to make about 50% more to afford my own room in a shared house or apartment. Student housing is usually two per room in a two-bedroom apartment. Also some studio apartments are cheaper than a one-bedroom.
Of course unions love a minimum wage because they use it like a ratchet to get their own wages hiked. But according to Econ 101, putting a floor on wages causes lower employment. It’s easy to point to workers and believe they benefit, but not so easy to see the people who don’t get hired. It might be better for society to have more people employed.
Baaaaahahahahaha
I love it – keep raising that minimum wage so we can keep raising the rents. Yawl ain’t putting my kids through college, you’re buying them a car for graduation. They thank you for your ignorance.