The current minimum wage in Sacramento is $12.50. However, there is a group of community organizers who are trying to further increase this $15. They are attempting to collect signatures to boost their campaign. If it goes ahead, by 2020 $15 will be the minimum wage in Sacramento, plus, following that, inflation adjustments. Further, this would give employees an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

This measure still needs to qualify for the ballot, otherwise it won’t be implemented. Indeed, there have been various proposed $15 minimum wage measures that have not filled the ballot qualifications. However, just two months ago the Sacramento City Council approved increasing the minimum wage to $12.50 by 2020 so it is unclear whether the change to $15 is likely to happen.

In other wage-related news in California, at the beginning of this month, according to the UC system said that the US Department of Labor requested assistance in “fixing the university’s payroll system.” Apparently it has actually underpaid up to 40,000 employees up to $5 each week on their paycheck, a discovery that was only made when the university moved over to a new payroll system.  A Board of Regents attorney explained: “the reasons for these failures are complex. We would like to reach a suitable resolution that would provide retroactive payments to affected employees.” The total amount of underpayments is valued at $3 million.

To sum up, the California Fair Pay Act (FPA) which will go into effect January 1, 2016, gives greater protection to employees as well as increasing burdens on employers in defending against unequal pay claims.