While California — and the city of San Diego — have laws providing for regular boosts in the minimum wage, Proposition 32 aims to raise statewide hourly pay at a more rapid pace. What would it do? The ballot measure calls for increasing the current statewide minimum wage of $16 an hour to $18 for all workers by 2026. A new base for California’s minimum wage has not changed in nearly a decade, although the current hourly wage is on a schedule to increase each year based on the rate of inflation. For example, the new minimum wage come Jan. 1, 2025, will rise to $16.50, tied to a 3 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index. Under Proposition 32, the minimum wage would increase to $18 next year only for employers of 26 or more and to $17 for smaller employers. By 2026, the standard would be $18 for everyone. While not a huge difference, the wage in 2026, without Proposition 32, would likely be $17 an hour, according to an analysis by the California’s Legislative Analyst’s office. It should be noted that within the city of San Diego, the minimum wage, currently at $16.85 an hour, is higher than that of the state’s, but like California, its annual increases are tied to the CPI. By Jan. 1, it’s likely it will surpass $17 an hour. RELATED LINKS Your guide to Proposition 4, California’s $10 billion climate bond measure Your guide to Proposition 3, which could add same-sex marriage to the California constitution Your guide to Proposition 2, California’s $10 billion school bond measure Your guide to Measure G, San Diego County’s half-cent transportation sales tax increase The last time the state of California raised the minimum wage was in 2016 when legislation was passed requiring incremental increases starting in 2017, with the wage reaching $15 an hour by 2022. However, increasingly there has been a push to hike wages for specific categories of workers. Legislation went into effect earlier this year mandating a $20 hourly wage for all fast-food workers, with annual increases tied to CPI. Why is this on the ballot? Joe Sandberg, an anti-poverty advocate and founding investor of Blue Apron, the meal delivery service, was responsible for getting the measure on the ballot. He first announced his plans for the proposition in late 2021 and ultimately spent more than $10 million on signature-gathering to qualify it for the ballot, although he had originally intended for it to go before voters in the November 2022 election. Who supports this, and why? Sandberg, in his official ballot statement in support of the measure, points out that there are about 2 million full-time workers in California who are earning less than $18 per hour. He argues that “when more Californians earn a fair wage for their work, our entire economy does better. Working people are better able to afford their rent, provide three meals per day for their kids, and all of that spending boosts the economies of our local communities.” Others supporting Prop. 32 include Ada F. Briceño, co-president of the hotel workers union; Unite Here, Local 11; and Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, a national nonprofit seeking to end what it calls subminimum wages in the U.S. Who opposes it, and why? The California Restaurant Association, California Chamber of Commerce and California Grocers Association have all come out in opposition to Proposition 32. They assert that the proposed wage hike will cost jobs, hurt small businesses, and bring “record-setting price increases to small restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, small retail shops, farmers, and more, so we’re going to see the same sticker shock everywhere.”