Pasadena’s Minimum Wage Rate Set to Increase to $16.93 on Saturday

Effective Saturday July 1, Pasadena’s minimum wage will increase to $16.93.

The new wage rate will remain in effect until June 30, 2024, when it will again be adjusted.

The City has conducted outreach ahead of the increase, according to Code Compliance Manager Jon Pollard.

“The City of Pasadena has engaged the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) in a contract in which NDLON provides outreach, education and training to low wage earners, members of the immigrant community, community groups, businesses and business groups about the City’s minimum wage. That outreach was initiated at the time the ordinance went into effect,” Pollard told Pasadena Now on Tuesday.

Pollard said The City of Pasadena recognizes the importance of the local minimum wage, and particularly its impact on low-wage earners and members of the immigrant community.

“Pasadena enjoys an economy of world-class quality, where workers at all levels bring vibrance and vitality to the local economy and in which employees can share in Pasadena’s prosperity made possible in large part by the City Council’s vision in requiring payment of a fair and just minimum wage.”

Sunday’s raise to $16.93 marks the eighth increase of the City’s minimum wage since the Pasadena City Council adopted its own minimum wage ordinance on March 14, 2016.
The ordinance applies to employees who perform at least two hours of work in a particular week within the city of Pasadena. Employers are required to pay the minimum wage for all hours worked.

The wage first increased on July 1, 2016 to $10.50 and increased by $1.25 every year on July 1 until it reached $15 in 2020.

The increases have led to a local debate on the impact of annual wage raise on local businesses. Many local restaurateurs opposed the ordinance and said it would force businesses to close.

“Any increases to the cost of doing business will have an impact on our local small businesses,” said Chamber of Commerce President Paul Little. “That said, the minimum wage increase has been anticipated for some time. The real challenge is that Pasadena’s minimum wage is not in sync with the state or county.”

Pasadena’s minimum wage rules were approved prior to the State of California’s action and the state’s minimum wage does not preempt Pasadena’s minimum wage ordinance.

The City’s ordinance provides for a steeper yearly increase in the minimum wage than does the State.

The state’s minimum wage increased to $15.50 in January.

After a series of prescribed annual increases, Pasadena’s minimum wage is now adjusted by an amount equal to the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.

Inflation has slammed local businesses and consumers.

The minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer can pay an employee for work. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared the minimum wage be a livable wage when the law was passed in 1933.

Businesses with 25 or fewer employees and qualifying nonprofits have an additional year to comply with each sequential wage increase.

For more information on the Pasadena Minimum Wage Ordinance, visit: bit.ly/3o3SHMh