Governor Jerry Brown (D) has recently signed a plethora of laws that could affect the economic lives of employees throughout the state. Signed on October 13, 2013, Assembly Bill 10 (AB 10) is one of the more significant changes working Californians will see in the next couple of years.
“Minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs,” Brown asserted in support of AB 10, which will raise minimum wage up to $10.00/hr over the next two years. Effective July 1, 2014, minimum wage will increase to $9.00/hr and on January 1, 2016, minimum wage reaches $10.00/hr.
The final $10.00/rate makes California the fifth highest minimum wage payer, following Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, Washington, and Vermont. A $10 minimum wage could potentially raise an individual's earnings by $4,000 a year.
AB 10 comes in the wake of protests in major cities around the country, namely San Francisco and Los Angeles, where low income workers called for the national minimum wage to be set at $15.00/hour.
In his annual State of the Union Address in February, President Obama urged the national minimum wage to be increased to $9.00/hour. Earlier this year, Representative George Miller's (CA-D) proposal to increase the national minimum wage to $10.10 over a several year period was unanimously voted against. The current national minimum wage is $7.50/hr and California's is $8.00/hr.