California’s minimum wage could rise as high as $18 per hour by 2025 for some workers if a ballot measure is approved by voters this November.
The minimum wage in Los Angeles is already set to rise from $15 to $16.04 on Friday, but Joe Sanberg, chief advocate of the Living Wage Act of 2022, said that’s not enough.
If approved by the voters on Nov. 8, the new minimum wage would put an extra $6,000 in many Californians’ pockets, Sanberg said.
“That’s the difference between families being able to provide meals for their kids … It’s personal to me. My mom raised me by herself, I saw her working many jobs and she still couldn’t make ends meet,” he said.
Business groups, however, are not so keen on the idea.
“Right now, small business owners are trying to crawl out of a very, very deep hole from the COVID disaster … They are facing inflation, they are facing problems of retail theft, supply train disruption, they are trying to survive,” said John Kabateck, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.
To learn more about the ballot measure for an $18 minimum wage, visit Ballotpedia.
