After seven years working as a dialysis technician, Romer Tamayo was still earning less than $25 an hour last October when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a minimum wage law for health care workers.

The Brentwood father of two was excited by the wage hikes promised in Senate Bill 525.

During his tenure at a Fresenius dialysis center, Tamayo’s pay had never increased by more than a dollar in a single year. He now earns $22.68, up from $18 when he was hired.

Under SB 525, Tamayo would receive two annual dollar pay bumps in a row. The measure spells out what dialysis workers should expect — an hourly minimum of $23 starting in June 2024, $24 beginning June 2025 and $25 in June 2026.

Now, however, those promised wage increases seem more like an illusion to Tamayo than a promise.

In early January, Newsom proposed a 2024-25 state budget aimed at staving off what the Department of Finance estimated could be a $37.9 billion shortfall. In the budget proposal, the governor said he wanted spending guidelines put in place on SB 525 that could suspend the annual wage hikes depending on the state’s revenue outlook.

Newsom said that he had been assured that the union backing the measure, SEIU California, would work with employer groups and key legislators to add the guidelines.

Known as triggers, such budgetary controls are not new.

In 2016, for instance, Gov. Jerry Brown asked for such a mechanism before the Legislature enacted Senate Bill 3 to raise the state minimum wage to $15 over a...

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