Hayward City Hall. (Bay Area News Group staff)
HAYWARD — Minimum wage workers in Hayward are set to benefit from a pay increase in the new year.
The adjustment is to be made under the city’s local minimum wage ordinance, which was approved by the City Council in 2020.
Beginning on Jan. 1, minimum wage employees who work for larger employers (businesses with 26 or more employees) will see their hourly pay increasing by 78 cents to $16.34, with subsequent annual adjustments of up to 5% based on the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco-Oakland region.
Those working for employers with 25 or fewer employees will be entitled to $15.50 per hour, a 98-cent increase. Future increases for small business employees will be consistent with the amounts set by state law.
Both baselines are higher than the California minimum wage, which currently stands at $15 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees, and $14 per hour for employers with 25 or fewer employees.
“We’re very sensitive to the cost of living in this area, and we just felt that the lowest paid workers needed a raise,” said Mayor Barbara Halliday in an interview.
“When this first came to us in April 2020, the pandemic had just started and we didn’t know what we were facing. Our smaller businesses especially were really starting to suffer.
“I hope employers who are doing well enough are paying their employees even more than this, but we want to support employees, yet remain sensitive to the difficulties that businesses are facing.”
Originally published at Martha Brennan