Minimum Wage in Pasadena Will Increase on July 1

A local grocery store (Photo – ColoradoBlvd.net)

Pasadena’s minimum wage is set to increase from $16.93 per hour to $17.50 per hour for all businesses, regardless of size, on July 1, 2024.

By News Desk

Eight years ago, on March 14, 2016, the Pasadena City Council adopted its own minimum wage ordinance. 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.

Pasadena’s Minimum Wage

Pasadena’s Minimum Wage is different from the state’s and provides for a steeper increase in the minimum wage. 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. The new $17.50 wage rate will remain in effect until June 30, 2025, when it will again be adjusted.

California Fast Food Workers’s Minimum Wage

California Fast Food Workers’s Minimum of $20.00 per hour, set on April 1, 2024, applies to all national fast-food chain establishments within the geographical boundaries of Pasadena and supersedes the local minimum wage rate if the employer meets the definition of “national fast-food chain.”  For information about California’s minimum wage for fast-food workers visit the California Department of Industrial Relations at Dir.Ca.Gov/Dlse/Minimum_Wage.htm.

Recognizing the importance of the local minimum wage and particularly its impact on low-wage earners and members of the immigrant community, Planning & Community Development Director Jennifer Paige noted that workers at all levels bring vibrance and vitality to the local economy. Employees can share in Pasadena’s prosperity, made possible, in large part, by the City Council’s vision in requiring that they be paid a fair and just minimum wage.