Ringing in the 2025 New Year with Minimum Wage Increases All Around California
All minimum wage employees in the state of California will see a pay increase of at least $0.50 an hour from $16 to $16.50 an hour. However, some cities have created their own minimum wage. A city can choose to have a higher minimum wage than the state’s, but no city can choose to have a lower minimum wage. The California minimum wage is the minimum pay per hour for the entire state. The cities that have established a higher minimum wage than California are as follows:
Southern California
San Diego: $17.25
West Hollywood: $19.65
Northern California
Belmont: $18.30
Burlingame: $17.43
Cupertino: $18.20
Daly City: $17.07
East Palo Alto: $17.45
El Cerrito: $18.34
Foster City: $17.39
Half Moon Bay: $17.47
Hayward: $17.36, $16.50 for small businesses
Los Altos: $18.20
Menlo Park: $17.10
Mountain View: $19.20
Novato: $17, $16.50 for small businesses
Oakland: $16.89
Palo Alto: $18.20
Petaluma: $17.97
Redwood City: $18.20
Richmond: $17.77
San Carlos: $17.32
San Jose: $17.95
San Mateo: $17.95
Unincorporated San Mateo County: $17.46
Santa Clara: $18.20
Sonoma: $18.02, $16.96 for small businesses
South San Francisco: $17.70
Sunnyvale: $19
As you can see, nearly all of the cities with higher minimum wages are in Northern California except for San Diego and West Hollywood. If you work or own a business anywhere in California, you need to be aware that minimum wage has increased across the entire state starting in January of 2025.