California voters have rejected Proposition 32, which would have raised California’s minimum wage to $18 an hour, CBS News projects.
The ballot measure would have immediately raised the state’s minimum wage to $17 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, workers at these companies should receive a roughly 5.9% wage increase to $18, which would make the state’s minimum wage the highest in the country. For employers with 25 or fewer employees, the minimum wage would have increased to $17 on January 1, 2025, and to $18 on January 1, 2026.
The rejection of Proposition 32 comes next healthcare And fast food workers in the state got a minimum wage increase this year, the latest in a series of hourly wage increases in California over the past decade.
Nearly 33% of California’s workforce works in low-wage jobs that pay less than $18 per hour. According to Oxfam, more than 3 million California workers, or roughly 16% of the state’s workforce, would earn less than $17 an hour in 2024.
Over the past decade, California’s minimum wage has doubled from $8 to $16 per hour. By comparison, the federal standard is currently $7.25, which has been in effect since 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Who Supported Proposition 32?
The campaign for the measure received support from the California Democratic Party, California Labor Federation and California Teachers Association.
Entrepreneur Joe Sandberg and his committee raised approximately $10.4 million in support of Proposition 32 in the lead-up to the general election, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
In advocating for the measure, Sandberg said an increase in the minimum wage would “create more jobs and more prosperity for everyone.”
“When more Californians earn a fair wage for their work, our entire economy will do better,” he wrote. ‘Working people are better able to pay their rent, provide three meals a day for their children, and all that spending boosts the economies of our local communities.
Who was against Proposition 32?
Critics of the measure included the California Grocers Association, Chamber of Commerce and Restaurants Association.
In California’s official voter information guide, the opposition called Proposition 32 a “terribly flawed measure” that was “written by one multi-millionaire alone.”
The organizations argued that the ballot measure would have raised the cost of living, eliminated jobs and made things more difficult for businesses, similar arguments they made with the raise fast food workers received earlier this year.
If the measure passed, companies would have had until Jan. 1, 2026, to increase wages to at least $18 per hour.
In 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law that mandated a minimum wage increase to $20 per hour for the state’s 553,000 fast food workers, starting in 2023. April 2024.
When healthcare workers got a similar pay increase to as much as $25 per hoursome healthcare providers expressed concerns about hospitals trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics claimed that some providers would have to cut hours and jobs.
