California’s minimum wage would rise to $11 per hour next year under a bill passed by the state senate on Monday.
The bill by San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno would supersede a measure passed less than two years ago raising the minimum wage to $10 over the same period.
“Despite our recovering economy, millions of Californians, many of them children, continue to live in poverty,” Leno said in a statement. “Full-time workers in this state should not be forced onto public assistance simply because they earn the minimum wage.”
The state’s current minimum wage of $9 an hour leaves workers below the federal poverty line for a family of four, Leno said. After raising the minimum wage to $11 in 2016, his bill would hike it again to a minimum of $13 per hour in 2017, and tie it thereafter to the rate of inflation.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!