(Sacramento, CA) — California fast food workers will be paid at least $20 per hour next year under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have among the highest minimum wages in the country. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States. Now, the focus will shift to another group of low-wage California workers waiting for their own minimum wage increase.
Lawmakers passed a separate bill earlier this month that would gradually raise the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 per hour over the next decade. That raise wouldn’t apply to doctors and nurses, but to most everyone else who works at hospitals, dialysis clinics or other health care facilities.