California Proposition 32 would increase minimum wage in the state to $18. What you should know
After health care and fast-food workers in California received a pay bump this year, the state's minimum wage employees could be next to get a raise if voters approve Proposition 32.
If the measure passes, minimum wage would immediately increase to $17 an hour in California for employers with 26 or more employees. On Jan. 1, 2025, California workers at those businesses would receive a roughly 5.9% raise to $18, making the state's minimum wage the highest in the nation. For employers with 25 or fewer employees, minimum wage would increase to $17 on Jan. 1, 2025, and to $18 by Jan. 1 2026.
Nearly 33% of California's labor force have low-wage jobs that pay less than $18 an hour.
More than 3 million workers in California, or roughly 16% of the state's labor force, earned less than $17 an hour in 2024, according to Oxfam.
In the decade leading up to Proposition 32's placement on the ballot this year, California has doubled its minimum wage from $8 an hour to $16, compared to the federal standard of $7.25, which has been in place since 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Despite the increases, the California Legislature's nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor found that housing in most of the state is unaffordable for all types of households, including for single adults, couples and adults with children.
"It's very hard for low-income workers in California," said Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a former member of the LA County Board of Supervisors. "In Los Angeles County alone, nearly 40% of the households in our county has incomes of less than $60,000 a year. That is well below the poverty wage."
Who supports Proposition 32?
The measure has won support from the California Democratic Party, California Labor Federation and California Teachers Association.
"The biggest supporter is a man named Joe Sandberg, who poured about $10 million into signature gathering," Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson said. "He's a businessman turned anti-poverty activist."
Leading up to the general election, Sandberg and his committee raised about $10.4 million in support of Proposition 32, according to the California Fair Political Pratices Commission.
In his argument for the measure, Sandberg believes that the increase would "create more jobs and more prosperity for everyone."
"When more Californians earn a fair wage for their work, our entire economy does better," he wrote. "Working people are better able to afford their rent, provide three meals per day for their kids, and all of that spending boosts the economies of our local communities.
Who opposes Proposition 32?
The critics of the measure include the California Grocers Association, Chamber of Commerce and Restaurants Association.
In California's Official Voter Information Guide, the opposition called Proposition 32 a "horribly flawed measure" that was "written by one multimillionaire alone."
The organizations claim the ballot measure will increase the cost of living, eliminate jobs and make it harder on businesses, similar arguments they made to the wage increase fast-food workers received earlier this year.
Businesses would have until Jan. 1, 2026, to increase pay to at least $18 an hour.
In 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that mandated a minimum wage increase to $20 an hour for the state's 553,000 fast-food workers, beginning in April 2024.
"The opposition argues that increasing the minimum wage would drive prices up," Pomona College politics professor Sara Sadhwani said. "We've already seen increases in prices following the increase in minimum wage for fast-food workers throughout the state."
When healthcare workers received a similar raise to as much as $25 an hour, some providers raised concerns about hospitals trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics claimed some providers would need to cut hours and jobs.
However, hospitals in the state have already already increased wages under the law's original timeline, said Sarah Bridge, vice president at the Association of California Healthcare Districts.
"It obviously does create financial pressures that weren't there before," Bridge said. "But our members are all poised and ready to enact the change."
