SACRAMENTO —
It appears that California voters will not get a chance to vote on increasing the minimum wage to $18 in November.
The minimum wage initiative was not among seven measures that had enough valid signatures to qualify for the general election ballot by Thursday’s deadline, according to the California secretary of state.
California’s minimum wage for all employers is set to rise to $15.50 an hour in January, as inflation triggers a law governing automatic pay increases.
The state’s minimum wage has increased yearly since 2017, and is currently $14 an hour for small employers and $15 an hour for employers with more than 26 workers.
Although California’s minimum wage is higher than the national rate of $7.25, proponents of the measure say the current standard is not enough, especially as housing costs and gas prices soar.
“Working families are suffocating,” said Anna Bahr, spokesperson for the Living Wage Act campaign. “The cost of living is skyrocketing — gas prices are at an all-time high, grocery bills are breaking the bank and a single medical emergency is enough to send someone into a lifetime of debt.”
The initiative’s failure to qualify for the ballot came as a surprise, as the campaign announced in May that it had 1 million signatures, well above the 623,212 required.
Bahr said Friday the campaign “will pursue every possible remedy” to get the measure on the ballot in November despite not meeting secretary of state standards set on Thursday.
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