California’s Minimum Wage Would Rise to $18 an Hour If Voters Pass Prop. 32

Californians will decide whether to raise the statewide minimum wage in November, just months after fast-food workers’ wages were increased to $20 an hour. The existing minimum wage in California is $16, up from $10.50 in 2017 under a law calling for incremental increases. This year’s ballot initiative, Proposition 32, has proposed raising the state’s minimum wage to $18 per hour in 2025. For employers with fewer than 25 workers, the change would take effect in 2026. This would make California’s minimum wage the highest in the nation, surpassed only by the local wage in West Hollywood, which is currently $19.08. Anti-poverty advocate and investor Joe Sanberg has been the driving force behind the recent movement to raise the minimum wage in California. He submitted the initiative in 2022 but did not collect enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot until 2024....