California’s minimum wage is $10 an hour, well ahead of the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage, but well behind the cost of living in much of this very expensive state—we’re still talking about less than $21,000 for a year of full-time work. California voters will have a chance to to improve on that come November, since a measure gradually raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour has qualified for the ballot:
The California Secretary of State's office said supporters of the measure, pushed by Labor group coalition Lift Up California, had gathered more than the 400,000 signatures needed to have the Fair Wage Act of 2016 placed on the ballot. [...]
The measure would boost the state's minimum wage to $11 an hour in 2017, and increase it by a dollar an hour every year until reaching $15 an hour in 2021. After 2021, the minimum wage would be adjusted annually based on the rate of inflation.
Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco are already on their way to a $15 minimum wage thanks in large part to worker organizing in industries like fast food. Though business groups like the Chamber of Commerce always warn of dire consequences for paying workers enough to live on, until recently Washington state had the highest state minimum wage in the country and yet produced strong job growth and a generally good economic picture. In San Jose, California, unemployment went down while the minimum wage went up. And dozens of studies have found that, while raising the minimum wage means low-wage workers are paid more, it doesn’t result in job loss. So California voters should take those Chamber of Commerce talking points and toss them right out the window.