Voters will get a say on the Living Wage Act

As a voter, would you vote in favor or against raising the minimum wage to $18 in California?

Voters will soon get the opportunity to do just that. An initiative called the Living Wage Act of 2022 has been qualified by the secretary of state and will appear on ballots next year.

The measure comes as cost-of-living increases and inflation have exacerbated the effects of income inequality in the state.

If it passes, the Living Wage Act would extend the “phased increase implemented in 2017, bringing the second highest-in-the-nation statewide minimum wage up to $18 over the next few years,” according to a news report. The last time the minimum wage received a bump was in 2022, when it became $15.50 an hour for all employers.

Those in favor of the Living Wage Act failed to get through the signature verification process by the June 31 deadline to get the measure on the ballot for last year’s midterms. However, a few days later, the measure was deemed eligible for the 2024 ballot, according to news reports.

Under the Act’s initial increase timeline, and had it been put on the ballot and passed, the minimum wage would have gone from $16 earlier this year to $17 early next year. Businesses that employ 25 or more people would have been affected. Those businesses that have more than 25 employees would have had the $16 baseline go into effect in 2024.

Though the measure does have proponents, economists see it as a point of contention because some research suggests that higher baseline wages could contribute to job loss, as employers hold back on growth in an effort to pay existing employees. Those who could be hit hardest are small businesses.

“The pressure of wages will affect employers’ ability to maintain their staffs at current levels,” Rebeckah Paxton, director of research and state coalitions for the Employment Policies Institute, said to KSWB in a news report. “As minimum wage hikes may cause some to lose their jobs while others receive wage boosts, the job losses may put some workers and families into poverty while others may be lifted out.”