SACRAMENTO (AP) — The California Senate on Monday approved a plan to again raise the state’s minimum wage, lifting it to $13 an hour in 2017, then tying it to the rate of inflation after that.
The proposal by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, comes just two years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation giving California one of the highest minimum wage rates in the nation. It is currently $9 an hour and will rise to $10 an hour in 2016.
But Leno said that rate, earned by 8 million workers, does not reflect the cost of living in California. He says his plan would bring workers to the federal poverty level by boosting the minimum wage an additional $1 in 2016, to $11 an hour, then rising it to $13 an hour starting in 2017.
“Full-time workers in this state should not be forced onto public assistance simply because they earn the minimum wage,” Leno said in a statement.