Highest State Minimum Wage Fails to Pass in California 

In a rare loss for minimum wage backers, California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 32, a measure to raise the state’s minimum wage to US$18 an hour by 2026. The proposed rate would have been the highest state minimum wage in the county. With 96% of the vote in, voters rejected the measure by a margin of slightly more than 1.5% or about 244,000 votes.  

This marks the first time a ballot measure in any state that proposed raising the minimum wage has failed since 1996, NBC News reported.  

Current minimum wage rates in California are $16 per hour for most workers and $20 in the fast-food sector. The healthcare sector will eventually see its minimum wage reach $25 per hour under a law that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last year and took effect in October, the Associated Press reported.  

Washington state’s minimum wage of $16.28 an hour is currently the highest state minimum wage. However, Hawaii’s minimum wage is set to gradually increase to $18 an hour in 2028 under a law passed in 2022.  

About 40 California cities and counties already have minimum wages higher than the statewide rate, and six of them require minimums above $18 per hour as of this year, according to the Associated Press.   

And while California’s increase was unsuccessful, voters in Alaska and Missouri readily approved ballot measures this month to raise their state minimum wages gradually to $15 an hour by 2026, according to NBC News projections, with increases after 2026 attached to economic data.