SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – The state’s largest union says it has filed a second ballot initiative seeking to boost California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, setting up a ballot rivalry between two factions of the powerful Service Employees International Union.
SEIU’s state council announced its initiative Tuesday. It would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 and require at least six paid sick days a year. The group says it will spend $20 million to $30 million on the campaign.
Meanwhile, SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers West says it already has collected the 366,000 signatures needed to qualify a separate $15-an-hour measure for the ballot in 2016.
California’s current $9 hourly wage is set to increase to $10 next year. A legislative proposal this year also failed to advance.