California governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state’s minimum wage will rise to $17.40 next year, a ay floor set to become the highest of any US state.
The pay bump will go into effect starting 1 January, Newsom announced on Friday. The state’s current minimum rate is $16.90. In a news release, Newsom touted the move as a salve for working families amid high living costs and took a jab at the Trump administration.
“For years, Donald Trump and Republicans have blocked efforts to raise the federal minimum wage while handing tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” Newsom said.
Seattle does this and ties it to the CPI-W. It’s currently $21.30, which isn’t the highest in the country due to surrounding cities in the same Seattle metro area having slightly more, like $21.65 in Tukwila, $21.63 in Burien, and $21.50 in Renton. Every Seattle metro area city and even unincorporated King County (6309 sqmi for all of the metro area with 4.16 million residents) all have their own city/county laws to tie it to CPI-W.
I don’t see why everyone doesn’t do this.