Workers at rural, independent health care facilities will start making a minimum of $18 an hour, while others at hospitals with at least 10,000 full-time employees will begin getting paid at least $23 an hour this week. The law will increase workers' pay over the next decade, with the $25 hourly rate kicking in sooner for some than others.

About 350,000 workers will have to be paid more under the law starting Wednesday, according to the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center.

“Today’s victory belongs to the workers who spoke passionately about the grueling work and the impact on patients when workers cover two or three jobs, whether on short-staffed nursing home floors, in hospital operating rooms, or at the front desks and phone lines of community clinics,” state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a Democrat who authored the law, said in a statement.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law last year, and workers were slated to get raises in June. Lawmakers and the governor agreed this year to delay the law to help close an estimated $46.8 billion budget shortfall.

The law applies to a wide range of workers, including those providing services at psychiatric health facilities, urgent care clinics and residential settings, according to the state Department of Industrial Relations. It does not apply to employees at state-run health care facilities.

California's minimum wage for most workers in the state is $16 an hour. Voters will decide in November whether to increase...

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