California may become the first state in the nation to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022 for large employers under a tentative deal struck by lawmakers and union leaders, according to the Los Angeles Times on Saturday.
According to documents obtained by the Times, the deal would increase California’s minimum wage from the current $10 per hour to $10.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2017, with another 50-cent increase in 2018 and $1-per-year increases through 2022 for employers with 25 or more workers. Smaller employers would have an extra year to comply.
Sources told the Times that the legislature could vote on the wage increase as soon as this week by amending an existing bill on hold since 2015.
The compromise comes after the first of two union-sponsored initiatives to raise the minimum wage qualified last week for the Nov. 8 ballot. Polls have indicated that voters would support the increase.
For California Gov. Jerry Brown, who supported a minimum wage hike in 2013, the agreement is seen as political pragmatism, according to the Times. Brown has resisted further minimum wage increases in recent years, but the ballot initiative indicated that labor leaders were prepared to take the issue directly to voters.
Industry groups warned that the wage hike, if approved, could have a devastating impact on businesses across the state, particularly restaurants. California does not allow a tip credit, which means tipped workers would receive $15 per hour in addition to tips.
“While we believe this issue should be dealt with by the legislature, voters still believe that a minimum wage increase to $15 is too much too soon,” according to a statement from the California Consumers Against Higher Prices Committee, which is co-chaired by Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association.
“It is imperative that lawmakers listen to the voices of their constituents rather than bowing to the will of special interest groups,” the statement continued. “If this overreaching deal is passed through the legislature, it will not solve any of the fundamental problems it seeks to address, and will result in devastating impacts to family-run businesses, education, seniors, services for the disabled, working families and more.”
California is seen as a bellwether state, and the increase, if it comes to fruition, could spur efforts to raise the minimum wage in other states where a $15 per hour rate has been proposed, including New York.
Union groups praised lawmakers for agreeing to the compromise.
Saru Jayaraman, ROC United’s co-director and co-founder, said, “The move to $15 in a state that long ago did away the antiquated system of a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, will bring significant improvement in the lives of restaurant workers, who nationally experience poverty at twice the rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce. Lifting wages for all workers is a question of basic fairness. We urge New York State to follow California’s leadership and not leave behind tipped workers, the majority of whom are women.”
Lawmakers in several cities across the state, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have already approved increases to a $15 minimum wage over the next several years
Both Democratic presidential candidates have endorsed a nationwide minimum wage increase to $15 per hour.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected]
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout