Calif. agrees to $15 minimum wage

The California state legislature has approved a bill that would raise the hourly minimum wage gradually to $15 between 2017 and 2022.

Healthcare is the No. 3 sector for hourly wage workers in the state, following retail and restaurants, according to the University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

The current California minimum wage is $10 per hour, the highest in the country. Under the plan, the rate would increase to $10.50 in 2017, $11 in 2018 and then $1 per year until 2022. Organizations with fewer than 26 employees would get extra time to comply.

The state has estimated that the increase “would cost California $3.6 billion annually by 2023, primarily from a pay boost for in-home healthcare workers in the public sector,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

The bill now goes to the consideration of Gov. Jerry Brown, who has recently warmed to the idea, the LA Times notes.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.