Starting from January 1, 2025, California will once again increase its minimum wage standards from $16 per hour to $16.5 per hour, a move that will apply to all employers regardless of their business size.
For full-time professionals or executives exempt from minimum wage/overtime requirements, their minimum wage will also increase from $66,560 per year (equivalent to $5,546.67 per month) to $68,640 per year ($5,720 per month) starting from January 1 next year.
These wage adjustments are based on the California Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has risen by 3.18% over the past year.
In the 2024 election, Proposition 32 in California proposed raising the minimum wage to $18 per hour, but the proposal was rejected. Preliminary election results on the day after the November 6 election showed that 48% of voters supported the proposal while 52% opposed it. Subsequent vote counting saw a slight increase in the approval rate. As of December 5, 49.3% of voters were in favor of raising the minimum wage while 50.7% were against it, leading to the proposal being blocked.
On April 1 this year, California increased the minimum wage for fast food workers from $16 per hour to $20 per hour based on the newly passed AB1228 law. Trade unions within the industry were the main proponents of this proposal, aiming to help workers living in expensive cities escape poverty. However, this move has led to a general increase in prices not only within the fast-food sector but across the entire food industry in California as a whole.