A higher minimum wage became effective across California on New Year’s Day in a move labor organizations praise as important progress but business leaders say comes at a hard time.
The statewide $14 minimum took effect for employers with 25 or fewer employees, as part of a gradual increase to bring California’s minimum wage to $15 in $1 raises annually since 2016. For employers with 26 or more employees, the wage increased to $15 per hour. In the city of Los Angeles, $15 has been the minimum wage for larger businesses since July of 2020.
“We’re at a hard time right now. And every time you raise the minimum wage, payroll taxes go up, workers compensation insurance goes up and, for businesses that are really struggling to survive, all those amounts matter,” Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, president and chief executive of the San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce, said. “Of course, we want people to be able to afford to live — our cost of living has gone up astronomically, it’s so much higher than it used to be — but it’s hard, it’s really hard, on businesses because of all the things that are tied into the minimum wage…
“How do (businesses) pay the higher minimum wage when your other prices are already going up?”
Labor organizations have been pushing for a nationwide increase to the minimum wage for years, notably in the “Fight for $15 and a Union” campaign, a call to action which has increased in popularity since the pandemic. The California wage increase is one of 56 states, cities or counties that increased on Jan 1. In 33 of those areas, according to the National Employment Law Project, the wage increased to $15 for some or all employees.
“When fast-food workers across California first made their demand for $15 an hour and a union nine years ago, nobody gave them a shot,” Allynn Umel, campaign director for the Fight for $15, said in an email statement. “But workers kept joining together, speaking out and going on strike, creating an unstoppable movement that has changed the politics of wages in the country. Workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union have won $150 billion in raises for tens of millions of workers, pushing cities and states and companies large and small to raise pay to $15 an hour.
“Now, $15 is widely understood to be the bare minimum workers anywhere need to get by. $15 has always been the floor, not the ceiling, for wages — and working people will continue to demand lawmakers and employers increase pay to keep up with the rising cost of living and ensure that every community can thrive,” Umel’s statement said.