The flip of the calendar\u00a0to July brought a scrap of relief to workers scattered from California to New York, as a series of minimum wage adjustments kicked in. Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia all made broad-scale adjustments \u2014 in Alaska\u2019s case, by $1 an hour \u2014 that will increase the earnings of more than 361,000 workers by roughly $221 million, according to\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.<\/p>\n Combined with minimum wage hikes in\u00a019 other states<\/a>\u00a0that took effect on Jan. 1, 2026, it\u2019s a testament to the ability of the states to schedule raises that increase pay for some of their lowest-wage workers.<\/p>\n Related | Minimum wages will rise in more than 20 cities, states in July<\/a><\/p>\n In California specifically, though, something different is happening. Despite the fact that the Golden State has one of the\u00a0highest minimum wages<\/a>\u00a0in the country, local cities and counties are increasingly coming to the realization that even as a wage \u201cfloor,\u201d that minimum won\u2019t give workers a shot at a decent life \u2014 and may lead them to look elsewhere for jobs.<\/p>\n As a result, 42 cities and counties now post minimums that are higher than the state standard \u2014 in some cases,\u00a0approaching or exceeding<\/a>\u00a0$20 an hour.<\/p>\n Even those higher rates don\u2019t cover the cost of living in the areas where they\u2019re implemented, but that\u2019s not to say they don\u2019t matter. As those wages rise, they cover a large swath of workers \u2014 and turn up the volume on the conversation about what it takes to actually make it in California.<\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*<\/p>\n The minimum wage is hardly\u00a0a trivial matter. According to estimates published by the\u00a0California State Library<\/a>, about 3 million residents of the state earn the minimum or very close to it \u2014 nearly 16% of the workforce.<\/p>\n Those ranks no longer include fast food workers at major chains, whose minimum wage was raised to $20 an hour in 2024, nor many\u00a0health care workers<\/a>, whose pay rose thanks to statewide legislation. But they do include legions of workers in restaurant, hospitality, retail and other jobs.<\/p>\n Related | Despite apocalyptic warnings, California fast food wage hike didn\u2019t kill jobs<\/a><\/p>\n In 2016, then-Gov. Jerry Brown\u00a0signed a landmark law<\/a>\u00a0that not only raised California\u2019s statewide minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour by 2022, but also scheduled future increases tied to inflation. This year, that inflation adjustment pushed the wage to $16.90, a 40-cent raise.<\/p>\n But while indexing to inflation is a \u201ccommonsense policy\u201d that many cities around the U.S. have adopted, \u201cIt is not the strongest way to protect the value of the minimum wage,\u201d write Economic Policy Institute researchers Sebastian Martinez Hickey and Emma Cohn in a recent blog post.<\/p>\n Instead, the EPI advocates tying the minimum to the median wage growth in a city or state \u2014 or that of\u00a0the nation<\/a>\u00a0itself.<\/p>\n A rising national minimum has been a nonstarter for 17 years. Stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009 by successions of reticent lawmakers in Washington, D.C., the wage is close to useless \u2014 miles away from even approaching the cost of living in most of the country.<\/p>\n Worse, the federal minimum gives the stingiest states and employers cover to continue using wage scales from another time. Twenty states either default to the mandatory $7.25 figure or actually have minimum wages set lower than that and are thus required to move \u201cup\u201d to the federal number. Of the 10 states with\u00a0the highest poverty rates<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S., seven are stuck at $7.25 an hour.<\/p>\n The EPI estimates that the federal minimum has\u00a0lost 30% of its purchasing power<\/a>\u00a0since its last adjustment and sits at its lowest real value in 77 years. Roughly\u00a0840,000 workers<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S., many of them tipped workers or students, are paid either the federal minimum or less.<\/p>\n But a minimum wage does more than raise living standards for the lowest-paid workers. When municipalities or states raise the minimum, motivated employers, including those who already pay more than the minimum to experienced workers, often follow with their own upward adjustments \u2014 their way of staying above that floor, so that they can attract and retain the workforce they need in order to thrive.<\/p>\n Studies have repeatedly shown that it\u2019s more cost effective to\u00a0retain your workers<\/a>\u00a0than it is to recruit and train a new workforce, even if retaining them means instituting a pay increase to stay ahead of the new minimum.<\/p>\n A rising minimum wage thus has a ripple effect, one of its many benefits. But in California, even an aggressively paced statewide minimum is no match for the skyrocketing costs of housing, food, transportation and health care. To the extent that they can, municipalities are now stepping into that breach.<\/p>\n *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*<\/p>\n San Francisco was the\u00a0first municipality<\/a>\u00a0in California to adopt a minimum wage higher than the state standard. That was in 2003, and it was not until 2015 that any other city or county followed suit.<\/p>\n But the last decade has seen major growth. Dozens of cities, plus Los Angeles County and San Mateo County, now mandate minimums that are above \u2014 sometimes well above \u2014 the state\u2019s $16.90 figure. Additionally, the so-called Olympic Wage law for many hotel and airport workers in Los Angeles reached $25 an hour this summer, although its full rollout\u00a0has been delayed<\/a>.<\/p>\n The stakes are certainly high enough. The links between financial struggle and health and poor health outcomes for both adults and children have been\u00a0well documented<\/a>, as well as learning problems and\u00a0barriers to education access<\/a>\u00a0among kids from low-income backgrounds.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/getwhatyoupayfor915.png\")
Jen Sorensen<\/p>\n