A measure to raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour qualified for the November ballot last week … but now legislators have reached a tentative deal to take the state to $15 without a big expensive campaign.
According to a document obtained by The Times, the negotiated deal would boost California's statewide minimum wage from $10 an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017, with a 50-cent increase in 2018 and then $1-per-year increases through 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply, delaying their workers receiving a $15 hourly wage until 2023.
Future statewide minimum wage increases would be linked to inflation, but a governor would have the power to temporarily block some of the initial increases in the event of an economic downturn.
The Los Angeles Times reports that this increase was negotiated between legislators and unions. The legislative deal as reported would take one more year to get to $15 an hour and allow small businesses that extra year, while unions would save money on a campaign to pass the ballot measure. Regardless of the details of the two plans, legislators would not be talking seriously about a $15 an hour minimum wage without pressure from worker organizing over the past few years.