California Minimum Wage 2027

City minimum wages: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San José

California lets cities and counties set a higher minimum than the state, and several large cities do. Where a local rate is higher than $17.40, the employer must pay the local rate for work done there. Some cities change their rate on January 1 like the state; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and San Francisco change theirs on July 1.

San Diego and San José have already published their 2027 rates: $18.35 and $19.00, both from January 1, for anyone who works at least two hours a week inside city limits. Los Angeles announces its next rate on February 1 each year and applies it on July 1; until then $18.42 holds. Unincorporated Los Angeles County ($18.47) is a different law from the City of Los Angeles and only applies outside city boundaries. San Francisco has been at $19.61 since July 1, 2026. Oakland ($17.34 in 2026) had not posted its 2027 figure yet.

Large hotels in Los Angeles pay a separate hotel worker minimum: Hotels with 60 or more rooms (50 near LAX): $25.00 plus $4.25 an hour for health care from July 1, 2026.

How the state rate is set each year

Labor Code section 1182.12 first laid out yearly steps to $15.00, reached in 2022 by employers with 26 or more workers, while smaller employers ran a year behind. Since 2023 there has been one rate for everyone, adjusted each year for inflation.

The adjustment compares the average U.S. CPI-W for July through June with the twelve months before. The raise is capped at 3.5% and the rate never goes down. The Director of Finance certifies the result by August 1, and it applies from the next January 1. On July 31, 2026 the department found prices up 2.99%, which turned $16.90 into $17.40. The 2028 rate will be certified by August 1, 2027.

Fast food and health care pay more

Workers at limited-service restaurants that belong to a chain with at least 60 locations nationwide have had a $20.00 minimum since April 1, 2024. A state Fast Food Council may raise it each year by up to 3.5% or the rise in prices, whichever is smaller, but it has not voted an increase, so $20.00 still applies going into 2027.

Health care workers covered by Senate Bill 525 have four schedules, depending on the type of employer. The rates move on July 1, not January 1:

The 2027 exempt salary: $72,384

A salaried manager, administrator or professional in California is exempt from overtime only if the salary is at least twice the state minimum wage for a 40-hour week (Labor Code section 515). From January 1, 2027 that is $17.40 × 2 × 40 hours × 52 weeks = $72,384 a year, or $1,392 a week, up from $70,304 in 2026. Below that, the job is owed overtime no matter what the title says.

Two groups have their own, higher test, updated every October with California prices: computer software employees ($61.03an hour or $127,108.34 a year in 2027) and licensed physicians ($111.14 an hour).

Tips, daily overtime and new workers

California does not allow a tip credit. Labor Code section 351 says tips belong to the employee and cannot be counted against wages, so a server earns at least $17.40 an hour (or the local rate) before tips. Teenagers get the same minimum as adults.

Overtime is counted by the day as well as the week. Work beyond 8 hours in a day, beyond 40 in a week, or on the seventh day in a row is paid at one and a half times the regular rate, $26.10 an hour at the 2027 minimum. Beyond 12 hours in a day it is double time, $34.80.

The state wage orders allow one lower rate: a “learner” with no experience in that kind of work may be paid 85% of the minimum, rounded to the nearest nickel, for the first 160 hours. In 2027 that is $14.80 an hour.

$17.40 an hour over a year

California withholds state income tax and 1.3% for State Disability Insurance, which also pays for paid family leave. Here is what the 2027 minimum comes to at common schedules; the California paycheck calculator does the same for any wage and pay period.

Unpaid wages: the Labor Commissioner

Underpaid minimum wage or overtime can be claimed online with the California Labor Commissioner's Office, within three years for minimum wage and overtime violations.

How this is calculated

The calculator uses the statewide rate: $16.90 today and $17.40 from January 1, 2027. If you work in a city with its own minimum, use that rate from the table above instead; the hourly to salary calculator works with any hourly amount.

Yearly pay is the hourly rate × hours a week × 52; a month is the year ÷ 12. After-tax figures subtract 2026 federal income tax for a single filer, Social Security, Medicare, California income tax and SDI.