The new minimum wage of $10 per hour in San José goes into effect on March 11, 2013.

The Minimum Wage Ordinance requires covered employers to pay covered employees a minimum wage of $10.00 per hour for work performed within the City of San José. The ordinance also mandates that, beginning on January 1, 2014, the minimum wage will increase annually if there is an increase in the Consumer Price Index issued by the United States Department of Labor each year.

City officials published detailed information about the new minimum wage for employers and employees on this San José webpage, including an updated frequently asked questions document about the new requirements.

According to the city’s Office of Equality Assurance, the Minimum Wage Ordinance covers:

Proposals to raise the minimum wage have been placed on the table at both the federal and state level. 

At the federal level, President Obama used his State of the Union address to unveil his plan to raise the federal minimum wage rate in stages to $9 an hour by 2015. The current federal minimum wage rate is $7.25 an hour.

At the state level, a California legislator introduced a bill (AB 10 - Alejo) to raise the minimum wage in stages to $9.25 an hour by 2016. The current minimum wage in California is $8 an hour. The bill also proposes to tie the minimum wage to the California Consumer Price Index beginning January 1, 2017. This would allow for annual upward adjustments to the minimum wage.

The bill, as currently drafted, would prohibit the state Industrial Welfare Commission from adjusting the minimum wage downward and from adjusting the minimum wage upward if the average percentage of inflation from the previous year was negative.

The federal proposal is also tied to inflation.

The federal minimum wage has not been adjusted since 2007. The state minimum wage was adjusted in 2008.

Reminder: Employers in San Jose must comply with a new city minimum wage ordinance effective March 11, 2013. The minimum wage rate for local businesses in San Jose will increase to $10 an hour.

San Francisco has had a higher minimum wage in effect since 2004. The current rate for employers with employees working in San Francisco is $10.55 an hour. Both San Francisco and San Jose have mandatory minimum wage posting requirements. These posters are available for purchase from HR Allen Consulting Services.

Voters in San Jose agreed this week to hike the city’s minimum hourly wage to $10 per hour — $2 per hour above the state minimum wage. 

San Jose is now the second city in California to set its own minimum wage. Three other cities nationwide set their own minimum wage: Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M. 

The first California city to set its own minimum wage, San Francisco, did so in 2003. The current minimum wage in San Francisco is $10.24 an hour. The San Francisco rate increases to $10.55 an hour beginning January 1, 2013. 

The San Jose law applies to employers who either maintain a facility in the city of San Jose or who are subject to the city’s business license tax (Chapter 4.76 of the city’s municipal code). 

Like San Francisco, the new San Jose ordinance comes with a posting requirement for employers. Employers will be required to post a notice setting forth the current San Jose minimum wage rate.