Should California's minimum wage be $18? Voters will soon decide

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Voters will decide in November whether California should raise its hourly minimum wage to $18 by 2026 and pay workers what would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country.

That would be on par with Hawaii, where workers are on track to get paid at least $18 per hour by 2028 under a law passed two years ago.

Five states — including Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee — do not have a minimum wage, though they are subject to the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25.

California's ballot measure, Proposition 32, would raise the state’s current minimum wage of $16 to $17 for the remainder of 2024 for employers with at least 26 employees, increasing to $18 per hour starting in January 2025. Without it, the state's minimum wage is set to increase to $16.50 per hour next year.

Small businesses with fewer than 26 employees would be required to start paying employees $17 an hour in January 2025 and $18 per hour in 2026.

Proponents of the measure say it will help low-wage workers to support their families in one of the most expensive states to live in in the country. Joe Sanberg, a wealthy investor and anti-poverty advocate, said the increase would give a raise of $3,000 a year to more than 2 million Californians who earn minimum wage.

He called the current situation happening in California “corporate welfare” because minimum-wage workers who work full-time don’t make enough to survive without government help.

“If someone who’s working full-time needs food stamps, doesn’t that mean that we as taxpayers are subsidizing the difference between what their employer should be paying them so that they could afford food and what they actually are paying them?” Sanberg said.

Opponents of the California measure say it would be hard for businesses to implement, particularly small employers with thin profit margins. They argue the cost would be passed onto consumers and could lead to job cuts.

“This increase, and the significance of how quickly it’s going to increase will really have a huge impact on them and their ability to maintain their business operations,” said Jennifer Barrera, president of the California Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly 40 California cities — including San Francisco, Berkeley, and Emeryville in Northern California — already have local minimum wages higher than the state’s. Since July, workers in Los Angeles have been paid an hourly minimum of $17.28.

West Hollywood has an hourly minimum wage of $19.08, but business owners there aren't happy either. A survey of 142 businesses commissioned by the city council found 42% of them said they had to lay off employees or reduce their hours because of the ordinance.

Fast food workers across the state received a bump to $20 an hour in April under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Democrat also approved legislation gradually raising wages for health care workers to $25 an hour by July 2026.

Fast food prices increased 3.7% after the law took effect while employment stayed relatively stable, according to a working paper from the University of California, Berkeley. But franchises in Southern California reported having to cut hours for workers as a result of the wage increase.

University of Pennsylvania professor Ioana Marinescu, who studies the labor market and wage determination, said increasing the minimum wage has not shown to have any net effect on the overall employment rate.

“There’s some positive, some negative, but on average the effect on employment is close to zero and that’s quite consistent across many studies,” Marinescu said.

Another common argument against raising the minimum wage is that those low-paying jobs are often filled by students or younger workers used as stepping stones to higher paying jobs.

But a report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office found roughly half of low-wage workers were over the age of 35 and more than a quarter were over 50. The state’s largest low-wage occupation is home health and personal care aides and more than half of low-wage workers are Latino.

Small businesses already have been grappling with inflation impacting their bottom line, said Juliette Kunin, who owns a gift store in Sacramento called Garden of Enchantment. The business employs about six workers.

“I don't want to see anybody not being able to support themselves and working full time,” said Kunin, who has mixed feelings about the measure. “But, yeah, if it doesn't pencil out for us, then we aren't going to be able to survive.”

Workers picketed outside the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel this week to demand higher pay and better benefits. Across the U.S. this year, thousands of hotel workers have gone on strike to fight for fair pay and workloads in the wake of COVID-era cuts.

Christian Medina makes $16 an hour in addition to tips as a banquet captain at the Sheraton Grand. He supports the proposition and hopes it helps workers better provide for their families.

“It’s hard getting paid $16 an hour,” he said. “I want to be able to save money for my daughter so she can go to school, go to a good college.”

Some say that even if the measure passes, it wouldn't go far enough.

Carmen Riestra, a uniform attendant at the hotel who makes $19 an hour, said an $18 minimum wage would still not be enough to afford living in Sacramento.

Riestra loves her job and has worked at the Sheraton Grand for 11 years, but the employees’ workloads have increased in recent years due to job cuts, she said.

“And the payment’s only $19?” she said. “That’s not fair.”

Austin reported from Sacramento, Calif. She is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @ sophieadanna

Sheraton Grand Hotel workers represented by United Here Local 49, a union that represents hospitality workers, participate in a strike authorization vote in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. The union is asking for higher wages and the reversal of COVID-era staffing cuts. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee via AP)

Sheraton Grand Hotel workers Lupe Ventura, center, and Alex Ivanitsky, right, who are represented by hospitality workers union United Here Local 49, participate in a strike authorization vote in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. The union is asking for higher wages and the reversal of COVID-era staffing cuts. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — The recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.

“We must seriously think about the succession of our messages. We must thoroughly hand over from our generation to the future generations,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, senior member of the Hiroshima branch of Hidankyo, told reporters Friday night.

“With the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize, we now have a responsibility to get our messages handed down not only in Japan but also across the world.”

The honor rewards members' grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.

Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their fear of a growing nuclear threat and push to eliminate nuclear weapons are not fully understood by younger generations.

The number of prefectural hibakusha groups decreased from 47 to 36. And the Japanese government, under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon.

But there is hope, and a youth movement seems to be starting, the Nobel committee noted.

Three high school students accompanied Mimaki at the city hall, stood by him as the prize winner was announced, and promised to keep their activism alive.

“I had goose bumps when I heard the announcement,” said a beaming Wakana Tsukuda. “I have felt discouraged by negative views about nuclear disarmament, but the Nobel Peace Prize made me renew my commitment to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”

Another high school student, Natsuki Kai, said, “I will keep up my effort so we can believe that nuclear disarmament is not a dream but a reality.”

In Nagasaki, another group of students celebrated Hidankyo's win. Yuka Ohara, 17, thanked the survivors' yearslong effort despite the difficulty. Ohara said she heard her grandparents, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, repeatedly tell her the importance of peace in daily life. “I want to learn more as I continue my activism."

In April, a group of people set up a network, Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, connecting younger generations around the country to work with survivors and pursue their effort.

Efforts to document the survivors' stories and voices have grown in recent years around Japan, including in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In some places, young volunteers are working with hibakusha to succeed their personal story telling when they are gone.

The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to its nearly half-century aggression in Asia.

Hidankyo was formed 11 years later in 1956. There was a growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan in response to U.S. hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific that led to a series of radiation exposures by Japanese boats, adding to demands for government support for health problems.

As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and nearly one-quarter of the total in the 1980s — were certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.

Visitors stand in front of the cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims at the Peace Memorial Park with the Atomic Bomb Dome seen in the background in Hiroshima, western Japan Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)

People visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)

Masako Kudo, an official of Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, speaks to media members at its Tokyo office in Tokyo, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, following Ninon Hidankyo's winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

FILE - Leaders of the Group of Seven nations' meetings walk before the Atomic Bomb Dome during a visit to the Peace Memorial Park as part of the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, western Japan Friday, May 19, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)

A visitor prays in front of the Peace Statue at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)