Health care workers in California may be getting a raise after the state legislature approved a measure to raise their minimum wage to $25 per hour that is now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
Under the bill, the minimum wage hike to $25 an hour would cover all employees of health care facilities, including cleaning and maintenance staff, food service workers, gift shop workers, medical coders and nursing assistants – although not all would see an immediate raise.
Large health care facilities with more than 10,000 full-time workers and dialysis clinics would raise their minimum wage to $23 an hour starting in 2024, followed by hikes to $24 in 2025 and $25 in 2026. The minimum wage hikes would be phased in more slowly at small health care facilities; the minimum wage at urgent care clinics would increase to $25 an hour by 2027 while skilled nursing facilities and other health care facilities wouldn’t reach $25 an hour until 2028.
The minimum wage requirement would be phased in even more slowly at rural hospitals and facilities that serve higher rates of patients enrolled in Medicare and Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, where the wage floor would rise to $18 an hour in 2024 and would gradually rise to $25 in 2033.
The bill also includes a provision that requires the state to establish a waiver program by next year to allow health care facilities that are in financial distress to temporarily delay the minimum wage increases. It would also block local ordinances to impose...
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