Delayed raises for certain California healthcare workers finally have a start date: Oct. 16.

Some of the state’s lowest-paid healthcare workers were supposed to see bumps in their paychecks starting in summer and stair-stepping up over time to $25 an hour, according to a bill passed late last year (SB 525). But a multibillion-dollar budget deficit led California politicians to delay the increases.

Some healthcare facilities reportedly already boosted pay, sometimes prompted by labor unions.

California has faced frontline staffing shortages. Advocates of the raises hoped to improve the situation, as well as boost retention and patient care. The law applies to workers who provide or support health care services at certain facilities (here’s a detailed list of covered facilities).

The UC Berkeley Labor Center estimates that as many as 426,000 California workers would bring in an average of $6,400 more a year during the first year of the policy, due to both direct and indirect effects of the law. 

That’s a 19 percent larger wage increase than workers likely would get without the law, the center estimates. By the fourth year of implementation, average wages would be about 25 percent higher than absent the law. 

After stairstepping up, the wages are to be adjusted for inflation annually.

The raises aren’t uniform, though. In separating covered health care workers from the state’s current $16/hour minimum wage, SB 525 created multiple health care minimum wage schedules. Here’s an overview (see state FAQs for more details):

• At hospitals or integrated health care systems with at least 10,000 full-time equivalent employees, as well as at dialysis clinics and facilities run by large counties, lower-wage workers initially will get $23/hour. That would increase to $24/hour in July, then to $25/hour in July 2026.
• At safety net hospitals and facilities run by small counties, wages would start at $18/hour, increasing 3.5 percent a year until reaching $25/hour in July 2033.
• At intermittent clinics, community clinics, rural health clinics, or urgent care clinics associated with community or rural health clinics, the minimum wage would start at $21/hour, rising to $22/hour in July 2026 and to $25/hour in July 2027.
• For all other covered health care facility employers, including facilities run by mid-sized counties, the wage would start at $21/hour, increasing to $23/hour in July 2026 and to $25/hour in July 2028.
• At licensed skilled nursing facilities, if a patient care minimum spending requirement is in effect, the minimum wage would start at $21/hour and jump to $23/hour in June 2026. It would hit $25/hour in June 2028. But currently, no minimum spending requirement is in effect; it would take separate legislative action. 

Notable exceptions include workers for physician groups with fewer than 25 physicians or for state-owned facilities. Congregate living health facilities also are not subject to the minimum wage law.

The law is complex; contact us for assistance knowing whether you are due a raise.

Keller Grover advocates for workers, helping you better understand your rights, protections and options. In more than 25 years litigating fraud and employment cases, we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients and class members. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

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