Minimum Wage Newsletter

On its face, the minimum wage is not a complicated idea: it is the bare-minimum level of pay that an employer must provide to you for your time spent on the job.  The right to be paid minimum wage cannot be waived—meaning your employer cannot trap you into agreeing to work for free—and it applies to all your time spent working on tasks for your employer defined as “compensable” under California law.  Even a very short amount of time spent working must be paid at least at the minimum wage rate.  That means (for example) that your employer must pay you for time you spend waiting in line with other employees on your shift to clock in.

You may also be entitled to payment of the minimum wage for various other “non-work” activities, such as when your employer requires you to show up to work but does not actually put you to work or when you are required to be “on-call” and ready to start work on short notice.

Most employees in the State of California who are paid on an hourly basis are entitled to receive at least the statewide minimum wage for every hour of work.  This includes any individual regardless of age, disability, immigration status, or membership in a union.

On the other hand, employees who are salaried (i.e., not paid on an hourly basis) and independent contractors are not entitled to the statewide minimum wage.  With some exceptions, salespeople who work on a commission basis are also not entitled to an hourly minimum wage.  California law defines each of these exceptions to the general rule requiring payment of the minimum wage, and an employer is not permitted to define you, for example, as an “independent contractor” simply to avoid paying you a minimum wage.

The current statewide minimum wage in California is $15 an hour for employees of larger businesses (25 or more employees), and $14 an hour for employees of smaller businesses (25 or fewer employees).  In May, Governor Newsom announced that the statewide minimum will increase to $15.50 an hour for all employees, regardless of the employer’s size, beginning on January 1, 2023.

Due to a 2016 change to the California Labor Code, the statewide minimum wage rate is set to increase annually when inflation is at seven percent or more over the previous fiscal year.  Because of this, working Californians may see another increase in the minimum wage if inflation continues at its present clip.

In addition the statewide rules, many individual cities in California have their own, higher minimum wage rates.  Employers operating within the city or county limits of these locales are required to pay employees at the higher, local rate.  For example, Los Angeles County currently requires employers to pay a $15.96 minimum wage.