San Diego’s Minimum Wage Increases to $11.50 January 1, 2017

Beginning January 1, 2017, all businesses within the geographic limits of San Diego must pay employees a minimum of wage of no less than $11.50 per hour.  This is a $1.00 per hour increase over the previous minimum wage implemented in July of 2016 and is $1.00 more than the standard California minimum wage.  While San Diego workers have seen rapid minimum wage increases recently (six months between wage increases), the next minimum wage increase will be in January of 2019 and January 1 each subsequent year as the minimum wage will be tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

What Employers Need to Know

In order to ensure a smooth and accurate implementation, employer should know the following concerning the San Diego Minimum Wage law:

• Applies to all employees who work at least 2 hours per week within the City of San Diego.
• Applies to employees working within the geographic boundaries of the City of San Diego.
• Applies to adults and minors, full and part-time workers.
• Tips and gratuities do not count toward minimum wage.
• Employers may not retaliate against workers asserting their rights to the minimum wage. Organizations found in violation of the minimum wage lay could be assessed penalties of up to $1,000 per violation along with back wages and other assessments.

All businesses within San Diego must display the new Minimum Wage notice in addition to the state and federal posting requirements.  The California  All-in-One-Poster, including all state and federal updates, is available in addition to the new San Diego Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Leave Notices.

The Labor Law Center offers a worry-free service to our customers through our Poster Service Plan with automatic replacements.  What this means is that we monitor the state and federal postings and automatically send you updates when they are released.  It is that simple!

We also offer our clients our newly updated Education Center.  If you are new to labor law compliance or just wanting to keep up with the latest news and changes as they come out, this is the place to bookmark and visit regularly.