California governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state’s minimum wage will rise to $17.40 next year, a ay floor set to become the highest of any US state.
The pay bump will go into effect starting 1 January, Newsom announced on Friday. The state’s current minimum rate is $16.90. In a news release, Newsom touted the move as a salve for working families amid high living costs and took a jab at the Trump administration.
“For years, Donald Trump and Republicans have blocked efforts to raise the federal minimum wage while handing tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” Newsom said.
The California minimum wage is not indexed to core CPI. It’s indexed to CPI-W which does include food and energy.
Just to provide a number, in the 2017 update to CPI-W weights, energy was given a weight of 7.85 in the updated index, indicating that the BLS thinks the average urban worker spends 7.85% of their money on energy. Or about $196 a month if you make $2,500 a month. It may be higher now these past couple months due to recent geopolitical events, but it is within the right ballpark.
Edit: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/relative-importance/