![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/00527_PK_20250604_PK_CALCHAMBER.jpg\" "\\"Katie")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Katie Porter, Former U.S. Representative, speaks during a California Chamber of Commerce panel discussion with candidates for California Governor at SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in West Sacramento. <\/p>\n
PAUL KITAGAKI JR.<\/p>\n
pkitagaki@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
In April 2019, then-Rep. Katie Porter uncorked a marker, propped up a white board and laid out a dire budget<\/a> for a hypothetical teller at a bank owned by JPMorgan Chase. The company\u2019s CEO, Jamie Dimon, struggled to answer Porter\u2019s questions about how the single mother could afford to survive on the $16.50-an-hour wage.<\/p>\n The viral exchange was one of the defining moments of Porter\u2019s career, one that she continues to reference<\/a> on social media. But as she\u2019s campaigned for governor over the past year, the Democrat has at points questioned the need for future minimum wage increases and a law requiring overtime pay for farmworkers.<\/p>\n The shifts highlight Porter\u2019s balancing act as she tries to win over backing from both labor and business interests in a crowded, chaotic race. A California Democratic Party poll released Monday<\/a> found Porter had the support of 10% of likely voters, trailing two Republicans \u2014 Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco \u2014 as well as Democrats Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra, with none of the candidates polling above the mid teens.<\/p>\n Porter has won endorsements from labor groups like the Teamsters California and the National Union of Healthcare Workers. She\u2019s also occasionally taken stances supported by moderate Democrats and major state business interests, like overhauling the California Environmental Quality Act.<\/p>\n During her 2024 Senate campaign, Porter supported<\/a> a California minimum wage of $25 an hour, indexed to inflation. At a California Chamber of Commerce dinner the following year, she struck a different note.<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep trying to give people more in wages rather than bringing down some of the core costs,\u201d Porter told guests<\/a> at the June 2025 event, responding to a question about a push in Los Angeles to raise the city\u2019s wage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t keep endlessly raising wages,\u201d she said later in the panel. \u201cAnd by the way, workers and labor are figuring this out \u2014that their bigger problems are structural, and they need structural solutions to bring down costs.\u201d<\/p>\n At an April 1 Fresno forum focused on agriculture, Porter said a law that required farmworkers be paid overtime had failed to increase their earnings, referencing a 2023 UC Berkeley study<\/a> on the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s a regulation that, however well intentioned it may or may not have been, does not work,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n In both cases, Porter later qualified her earlier comments.<\/p>\n In January, after Steyer and former Rep. Eric Swalwell entered the race, Porter told the audience at a San Francisco town hall that if a minimum wage increase proposal reached her desk as governor, she would sign it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who work hard here at one job, give their all to the California economy, ought to be able to make end\u2019s meet here in California society \u2014 period, full stop,\u201d Porter said, before reiterating her desire to address increased cost of living expenses.<\/p>\n In an April 11 post on X, Porter said California\u2019s labor movement \u201cwon an 8-hour work day as a core labor right for all workers\u201d and said she backed their effort to preserve that right.<\/p>\n Porter\u2019s campaign spokesperson, Peter Opitz, said the former Orange County Congressional representative had been consistent about her desire to lower costs for Californians.<\/p>\n \u201cKatie knows we need to look at both ends of the equation \u2014 costs and wages \u2014 when families are struggling to get by,\u201d Opitz said. \u201cShe would both sign a wage increase into law and take immediate action to bring down the cost of child care, housing, health care, and more so that Californians can make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter\u2019s critique of farmworker overtime caught the eye of Lorena Gonzales, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, who wrote in an April 14 post on X that \u201crolling back the 8 hour day for any worker is unacceptable.\u201d Gonzales said that both Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who echoed Porter\u2019s remarks, had \u201cclarified\u201d their position on the issue. Both candidates have been endorsed by the Federation\u2019s 1,300 member unions, alongside Steyer.<\/p>\n This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 5:00 PM.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_9987_BenPaviour_HA_260224.jpg\")