Insights Two states voted in November 2024 to raise the minimum wage.  Multiple other states are seeing increases in minimum wage beginning on January 1, 2025.  At least one state will hold a referendum on raising the minimum wage in 2026.

California voters have rejected a measure on the November ballot that would have raised the minimum wage for most workers to $18 an hour.

California voters rejected Proposition 32, which would have raised minimum wage to $18 an hour, CBS News projects. In the last decade, the state has doubled its minimum wage rate from $8 to $16 an hour.

Prop 32, which would have brought the state’s minimum wage up to $18 per hour, was the first minimum-wage measure to lose at the ballot in almost three decades.

Voters in California have narrowly rejected a ballot measure that would have gradually increased the minimum wage in the state to $18 an hour, NBC News projected Wednesday. It’s the first time a ballot measure proposing to raise a statewide minimum wage has failed nationwide since 1996.

The backer of California's recently defeated minimum wage measure said he was "disappointed" but vowed to keep advocating for higher wages.

California voters have rejected a ballot measure to increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour, marking the first time any state has failed to raise the statewide minimum wage since 1996, nearly 30 years ago.