It’s that time of year, folks—the dog days of August, when vacations are booked, beaches are crowded, and the Department of Finance menacingly recalculates California’s minimum wage. As instructed by statute, August 1st is the date by which state officials must increase (it never goes down!) the minimum wage for the coming year. 

So, without further ado: As of January 1, 2026, California’s statewide minimum wage will rise to an eye-popping $16.90, a 40-cent increase over 2025. (Of course, depending on the business sector and the local jurisdiction, the rate could be much higher—and that’s not even including the union-sponsored, City-Council-passed $30.00 “Olympic Wage” for hotel and airport workers that is scheduled to take effect in Los Angeles just in time for the 2028 Opening Ceremonies.) 

An hourly wage just shy of $17.00 is also low compared to California’s “supersized” minimum wage for fast-food workers, which comes in at a whopping $20.00.  And, on top of that, the minimum wage for certain healthcare workers just leapt to $24.00 on July 1—and is set to increase to around $25.00 on July 1, 2026.

As we’ve previously reported, the state’s increasing penchant to arbitrarily dictate mandatory wage rates for various industries appears to have backfired on the very workers it was intended to benefit, as studies show that the higher costs on employers actually accelerated job losses and automation in the fast-food industry.  Now, a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that the $20.00 wage rate in the fast-food industry may have resulted in a total loss of 18,000 jobs in that sector, a grimly impressive feat given that that rate only took effect last year.

In related news, Lynsi Snyder, the owner and president of fast-food fan favorite In-N-Out Burger, is moving her family and (for now) opening a “regional headquarters” in Tennessee, noting that “[d]oing business is not easy” in California, where the restaurant chain was founded by Snyder’s grandparents back in 1948.  (High business expenses are a key reason why California finished in 22nd place on CNBC’s 2025 ranking of the Top States for Business, while Tennessee ranked 8th overall.) 

Looks like it’s tough out there to be an employer or an employee in California these days. Yet, something tells us we’ll be seeing more bureaucratic wage dictation by this time next summer, which also happens to be an election year!