California residents voted against a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage from $16 to $18 by 2026.
This was the first time in nearly three decades that the blue state has rejected a wage increase, another sign that the state has slowly but surely become more conservative.
But it came in a close call as 49 percent of voters said yes to higher wages while 51 percent disapproved, the paper said. California election results. The Associated called the vote Tuesday evening.
Proposition 32 was supported by anti-poverty advocate and businessman Joseph Sanberg – who argued that the fight for better wages isn’t over just because the bill hasn’t passed.
He told it Politics: ‘This good result shows that California workers are ready for change and will not back down.
“The fight for higher wages and economic dignity for millions of California workers does not end here.”
Some experts have pointed to existing wage increases within specific unions in California to explain why Proposition 32 failed.
In California, for example, the minimum wage in the fast food industry is already $20.
The sunset over downtown Los Angeles (photo). California voters rejected an initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18
Jot Condie said the outcome was “historic” and that people were not in favor of Proposition 32 because it would increase costs across California.
Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that gradually increases wages for health care workers. Eventually they will make $25 an hour.
Critics of the failed legislation, such as California Restaurant Association President and CEO Jot Condie, called the vote results “historic.”
Condie said voters oppose a bill that would increase the state’s cost of living.
“It is important that policymakers hear the message from voters: stop using California consumers as guinea pigs for public policy experiments that make life more expensive for everyone,” she said, according to Politico.
California State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business John Kabatec agreed with Condie’s sentiment, stating that people “rightly saw Prop 32 as another side of working families’ ever-shrinking budgets.”
Jennifer Barrera, the president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, said that if the bill had passed, taxes would likely have increased and businesses would have been forced to lay off some of their workforces.
She told the Associated Press: “With the economy and costs top of mind for many voters this election, that message appears to have resonated.”
Despite the backlash, supporters of the proposal claimed it would have helped more than 2 million workers, including those who work in supermarkets and hotels.
A union demonstrating for wage rights in California (photo). One factor that experts say may have prevented the bill’s passage is that specific sectors already have higher minimum wages
Joseph Sanberg sponsored Proposition 32, claiming that ‘the fight for higher wages and economic dignity for millions of California workers doesn’t end here’
“The failure of Proposition 32 is disappointing for all Californians who believe that everyone who works should earn enough to support their family,” Kathy Finn, president of the UFCW 770 union, told the Associated Press.
UFCW 770 represents more than 30,000 workers across industries.
Politico reported that Sanberg spent $10 million in 2022 to launch the initiative.
California’s minimum wage has doubled since 2010, when it was just $8 an hour.
In 2016, the West Coast state became the first state in the country to standardize a $15 hourly rate. The law was approved by then-Governor Jerry Brown, who was also a Democrat.
There are 40 cities and counties in California that have set minimum wages above the statewide rate.
However, several provinces in the famously liberal state have shifted to the right, according to recent elections.
The state’s bluest county, San Francisco, registered a seven-point swing in Donald Trump’s favor compared to the 2020 election — possibly as part of a broader political realignment within the state.
Sanberg is an anti-poverty advocate and has spent $10 million in 2022 to qualify for Proposition 32, Politico reported
Protesters gathered for better wages (photo). Supporters of the rejected proposal said it would have raised wages for more than 2 million workers
After a decade of “soft crime” reforms to the criminal justice system, California voters rejected parts of Proposition 47.
The 2014 law reduced five low-level non-violent crimes from misdemeanors to felonies.
Voters overwhelmingly rolled back parts of the 2014 law, with all 58 California counties agreeing in rare cases.
That’s in stark contrast to a decade ago, when 58 percent of voters across the state opted to pass Proposition 47.
Proposition 36, a law that removed many of its predecessor’s amendments, passed this month with 68.9 percent of the vote, making thefts of $950 or less a felony again for offenders with two or more prior theft convictions.