Should Alameda County raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour? Voters will decide.

Alameda County voters will have the chance to consider a $30 hourly minimum wage measure on the March 2028 ballot.

If passed, the measure would gradually increase wages for county workers. It also would increase minimum wage for workers in private businesses in unincorporated areas, where there is no local government and the county has jurisdiction. It would not affect workers in the county’s 14 cities.

The measure first appeared before the supervisors in August, after the Living Wage For All coalition gathered over 100,000 signatures, requiring the supervisors to either adopt the measure or place it before voters. The board voted to first conduct a study on the proposal.

On Sept. 15, the supervisors placed the measure on the next possible ballot, then agreed to explore a countermeasure that would include more input from residents in the unincorporated areas — Ashland,  Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Hayward Acres, San Lorenzo and Sunol. 

The Living Wage For All coalition is made up of over 100 civil rights, faith and labor groups and is part of the national One Fair Wage campaign. Many of the members spoke at the Sept. 15 meeting. 

“Why do the people who have to work have to be squeezed?” asked John Howard, one of the petition’s coordinators. “If we’re going to work, we should have affordable or adequate wages that we’re going to work for.”

The minimum wage for unincorporated communities is $16.90 an hour, which is the California minimum wage. In Oakland, it is $17.34, with some exceptions for hotel workers. In Emeryville it is $20.34. (The U.S. minimum wage is $7.25.) According to the county’s study, no city in Alameda County is projected to reach a minimum wage of $30 an hour until 2032. 

“The $30-per-hour wage initiative targeting only unincorporated Alameda County is an attack on our communities,” Edward Escobar, founder of the Unincorporated Strategic Coalition, said at the Sept. 15 meeting. “Childcare centers, restaurants, family-run shops and long-standing employers cannot survive a wage spike while competing directly with neighboring cities operating under normal wage laws. We are not a testing ground.”

Supervisor Nate Miley agreed that the unincorporated communities should have more input. On a motion by Miley, the board instructed the Unincorporated Services Committee, which is chaired by Miley and includes Supervisor Lena Tam, to research a countermeasure for the same ballot.   

“If they put a countermeasure on the ballot that’s less than $30, it’s going to fail,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage said. “If it’s more, fantastic. I want it to pass.”

Emeryville next?

Raising the minimum wage to $30 could cost the county $33 million to $34.3 million per year, according to economist Paul Peninger, whose firm analyzed the measure for the supervisors. However, he noted that may be offset by tax revenue generated from increases in wages and consumer spending. Peninger said the estimate did not take into account reductions in county expenditures, due to potentially fewer people qualifying for services like CalFresh or Medi-Cal. 

Jayaraman said Living Wage For All is in talks with city council members in Emeryville and Berkeley about adopting the measure. She said the group recently collected the required signatures in Oakland, where the petition is under review before going to the City Council.

Under the Alameda County measure, large employers with more than 100 workers would be required to pay the new wage in 2030; the requirement would hit medium employers in 2035; and employers with 25 or fewer workers in 2037. 

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