Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
California Minimum-Wage Jump to Hit Virus-Battered Companies
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
July 30, 2020

Share

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday the state would keep in place a planned jump in the state’s minimum wage to $14 an hour next year for larger businesses, saying it would help hard hit lower-income workers even as many companies struggle to survive amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Democratic governor had the authority to suspend the scheduled increase given the state’s troubled economy. Since mid-March, California has processed nearly 6.8 million claims for unemployment as many businesses, especially restaurants and retailers, have been idled or forced to cut back operations while contending with government rules intended to limit the spread of the virus.
For hourly workers, Newsom said the increase represents “the raise they deserve.”
He said many of those workers “are on the front lines of the pandemic, providing child care, working in our hospitals and nursing facilities and making sure there’s food on grocery store shelves.”
But business groups warned that the increase would push even more struggling employers toward collapse, and make it harder for businesses to put furloughed workers back on the job — if those jobs come back at all.
“The governor is dead wrong on this call,” said John Kabateck, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. He said the heftier payroll costs could be a “a death blow” for many mom-and-pop businesses already struggling to keep their doors open.

The Minimum Wage Will Increase in January to $14 an Hour

Jot Condie, who heads the California Restaurant Association, said as many as 1 million of the state’s restaurant workers have been laid off or furloughed during the pandemic and “this makes it even tougher to bring workers back.”
Condie said if there ever was a time to postpone the wage hike “it is now.”
Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, said in a statement that the governor’s decision “will only put more pressure on small businesses as they face unprecedented uncertainty.”
“Not only do most not know if or when they will be able to reopen, but they are also facing the potential of the largest property tax increase in state history should Proposition 15 pass in November,” Lapsley said. Those pressures “will only drive more businesses to close their doors for good and put even more residents out of work permanently.”
The minimum wage will increase in January to $14 an hour for workers at businesses with more than 25 employees, and to $13 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
In 2016, California lawmakers approved gradually increasing the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, which Democrats praised as a victory in the effort to narrow the growing gap between rich and poor. At the time, Republicans warned the staged increases would only reinforce California’s image as hostile to business.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

DON'T MISS

Gaza Ceasefire Talks in Cairo Near ‘Significant Breakthrough,’ Two Security Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Farmer Sentenced to Prison in $650,000 Crop Insurance Fraud Case

DON'T MISS

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

DON'T MISS

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

DON'T MISS

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

DON'T MISS

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

DON'T MISS

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

DON'T MISS

Feds Again Bump Up Water Allocation for Many Fresno County Farmers

DON'T MISS

Levi Strauss Shareholders Vote Against Proposal to End Diversity Programs

UP NEXT

Autopsy Confirms Gene Hackman Died From Heart Disease

UP NEXT

California Faces Automaker Backlash Over 2035 Gas Car Ban

UP NEXT

Trump Says Putin May Not Want Peace and May Need to Be ‘Dealt With Differently’

UP NEXT

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

UP NEXT

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

UP NEXT

Shedeur Sanders Is Still Waiting for a Call as the NFL Draft Enters the Final Day

UP NEXT

Israel’s AI Experiments in the War in Gaza Raise Ethical Concerns

UP NEXT

Paul Skenes Strikes Out 9, Wins Duel With Yamamoto in Pirates’ Victory Over Dodgers

UP NEXT

Eovaldi Outlasts Verlander as Rangers Beat Giants

UP NEXT

Rams Take Oregon Tight End Terrance Ferguson in Second Round After Trading Out of First

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

15 hours ago

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

15 hours ago

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

16 hours ago

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

16 hours ago

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

16 hours ago

Feds Again Bump Up Water Allocation for Many Fresno County Farmers

16 hours ago

Levi Strauss Shareholders Vote Against Proposal to End Diversity Programs

16 hours ago

US and Mexico Have Reached Agreement on New World Screwworm, Ag Secretary Rollins Says

17 hours ago

Death Toll in Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port Blast Rises to 70

18 hours ago

Selma Mayor Responds to Criminal Charge

18 hours ago

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

For the first time in Fresno City College’s 115-year history, a United States senator will speak at its commencement ceremony. California De...

15 hours ago

15 hours ago

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. (REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)
15 hours ago

Gaza Ceasefire Talks in Cairo Near ‘Significant Breakthrough,’ Two Security Sources Say

15 hours ago

Fresno County Farmer Sentenced to Prison in $650,000 Crop Insurance Fraud Case

15 hours ago

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

Officers with the New York Police Department outside the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, on Monday, April 28, 2025. The Police Department said it was preparing for new protests in Brooklyn on Monday after a woman was verbally and physically assaulted by hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators there last week. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times)
15 hours ago

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

16 hours ago

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

At least 26 people were killed and three injured on Monday when two vehicles struck an improvised explosive device in Nigeria’s insurgency-hit Borno state, an attack residents blamed on Boko Haram. (Shutterstock)
16 hours ago

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

Visitors pay their respects at a memorial after a vehicle drove into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP/Lindsey Wasson)
16 hours ago

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend