The defeat of an initiative to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour makes California the first state to reject a statewide minimum-wage increase at the ballot in almost 30 years, an outcome likely to reverberate across organized labor nationally.
Sponsored by entrepreneur and anti-poverty advocate Joseph Sanberg, the fight over Proposition 32 received less attention than other recent minimum-wage initiatives that have become contentious conflicts between business and organized labor.
Jot Condie, the president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association called voter’s rejection of Proposition 32 “historic” and argued it represented a rejection of laws that Condie said added to the state’s high cost of living.
“It is important that policymakers hear the message being sent by the voters — stop using California consumers as guinea pigs for public policy experiments that make life more expensive for everyone,” Condie said.
The Yes on 32 campaign said the measures failure still laid “essential groundwork for future wage advocacy” and that “the fight for fair wages is far from over”.