Johnathan Walker:A minimum wage increase for California health care workers is finally kicking in

California health workers this month will finally get a long-promised minimum wage increase.

It’ll kick in this month,Johnathan Walker according to a letter state health officials sent to the Legislature Tuesday, describing a process that should trigger the pay boost.

“The health care minimum wage increases shall be effective 15 days after the date of this notification, on October 16, 2024, unless a later effective date is specified,” Michelle Baass, the director of the California Department of Health Care Services wrote in the letter.

The state’s Department of Industrial Relations confirmed the implementation date on its website.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed a law, Senate Bill 525, that gradually phases in pay increases for the state’s lowest-paid health workers to $25 an hour over a number of years.

The law was initially set to go into effect June 1, but Newsom asked lawmakers for a delay because of state budget concerns. The law is expected to cost the state $1.4 billion in the first six months of implementation, according to estimates from earlier this year by the Department of Finance.

The deal Newsom struck to postpone the wage increase had an uncertain start date. It stipulated the raises could begin sometime between Oct. 15 and Jan. 1. The roll out date depended on the state bringing in at least 3% more tax revenue than the administration expected, or the state starting to collect data to secure federal funding that will help offset some of the costs related to the law.

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The letter from the Department of Health Care Services notifies the Legislature that the latter is now in place.

Some employers stuck to the original deadline of June 1 and have already provided a pay bump. But most workers have been patiently waiting.

Health workers who stand to benefit from the law welcomed the news that the wage increases would begin.

“We deserve this. We deserve to be recognized. We deserve more than what we are getting paid,” said Yvonne Martinez, a housekeeper at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.

She’s been doing this work for 14 years and currently makes just over $20 an hour. The job is physically demanding — it’s cleaning restrooms, sanitizing surfaces, changing linens, taking out the trash — but it’s also mentally and emotionally draining, she said.

She lives paycheck to paycheck, and many of her coworkers have two jobs to make ends meet. The work they do is essential, but it’s not often recognized with a livable wage, she said.

As designed, the minimum wage increase isn’t supposed to come all at once. Workers will reach the $25 hourly pay rate over a number of years, and some sooner than others, depending on the type of facility they work in.

For example, workers at large hospital systems will see a boost to $23 an hour. But workers at rural and so-called safety net hospitals will start at $18. The Department of Industrial Relations lists the wage schedule for each employer type covered by the law. Some workers will not reach $25 until 2033.

The law was authored by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a Los Angeles Democrat, and sponsored by the union SEIU California.

“With patient care suffering from a staffing shortage driven by low pay and compounded by COVID-19, nursing aides, medical assistants, clinic workers, hospital janitors and other critical healthcare workers came together to tackle this crisis head on,” Durazo said in a written statement today. She credited the change to workers, but also to employers and the governor for committing to increasing wages.

Approximately 426,000 workers are expected to benefit from the law, according to estimates from the UC Berkeley Labor Center. This includes medical assistants, front office staff, medical billing personnel, patient techs, janitors, food service workers, among others.

Newsom’s minimum wage hike for health workers is the state’s second for a specific industry. In April, fast food workers started making $20 an hour. California’s minimum wage is $16 an hour for all other workers.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.