Should California’s minimum wage be $18? Voters will soon decide

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Voters will decide in November whether California should raise its hourly minimum wage to $18 by 2026 and pay workers what would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country.

That would be on par with Hawaii, where workers are on track to get paid at least $18 per hour by 2028 under a law passed two years ago.

Five states — including Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee — do not have a minimum wage, though they are subject to the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25.

California’s ballot measure, Proposition 32, would raise the state’s current minimum wage of $16 to $17 for the remainder of 2024 for employers with at least 26 employees, increasing to $18 per hour starting in January 2025. Without it, the state’s minimum wage is set to increase to $16.50 per hour next year.

Small businesses with fewer than 26 employees would be required to start paying employees $17 an hour in January 2025 and $18 per hour in 2026.

Proponents of the measure say it will help low-wage workers to support their families in one of the most expensive states to live in in the country. Joe Sanberg, a wealthy investor and anti-poverty advocate, said the increase would give a raise of $3,000 a year to more than 2 million Californians who earn minimum wage.

He called the current situation happening in California “corporate welfare” because minimum-wage workers who work full-time don’t make enough to survive without government help.

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