California minimum wage: Health care workers get a pay boost

Stay up to speed on all the latest local and national political news.

Hundreds of thousands of health care workers in California are finally getting a pay raise that will gradually increase their minimum wage to $25.

The new pay boost, which starts Wednesday, was supposed to go into effect in June but was delayed over state budget issues.

It comes months after fast food workers got their own minimum wage increase to $20 an hour.

California's minimum wage for most workers is $16 and there's a proposal on the ballot to raise that as well. Proposition 32, if approved by voters in the November election, would raise the minimum wage to $18 over two years.

Below is more to know about the new minimum wage for some types of health care workers.

The Associated Press reported that about 350,000 people will be paid more starting Wednesday, according to the UC Berkeley Labor center.

The AP also reported that many hospitals have already begun to implement the wage increases.

The minimum wage will eventually rise to $25 an hour but not on the same timetable for all classes of workers.

For example, hospitals with 10,000 or more full-time workers will reach $25 from July 1, 2026, to Dec. 31, 2027.

See the full schedule here.

Click here to see a breakdown of exceptions. They include workers at facility types that are not named under the law.

Among the examples are:

–The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For more information about the November election, including key issues and other races on the ballot, check out the KCRA 3 Voter Guide.Find more political news from our national team here.