2025 Minimum Wage Increases in Santa Clara, Sunnyvale

The cities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale announce separate increases to their minimum wages. Both increases are based on last year's Consumer Price Index.

Once again, the minimum wage will increase in both Santa Clara and Sunnyvale on Jan. 1, 2025.

The City of Santa Clara said its minimum wage will increase to $18.20 per hour. The rule is that any employee who works more than two hours per week in the city is entitled to at least $18.20 per hour.

The City of Santa Clara adjusts its minimum wage every Jan. 1 of the new year. The adjustment is based on the regional Consumer Price Index.

Sunnyvale’s Minimum Wage Jumps to $19/Hour

Meantime, the City of Sunnyvale announced earlier this month that its minimum wage will increase to $19 per hour on Jan. 1, 2025.

The city’s ordinance requires that the city adjust its minimum wage rate annually based on inflation. Like Santa Clara, Sunnyvale bases the inflation on the prior year’s Consumer Price Index.

Both cities use the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward regional index provided by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

California’s Lowest Wage Will Increase to $16.50 Per Hour

Interestingly, the new minimum wage rates in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale show that, even if California’s Proposition 32 had passed in November, it would not have impacted local businesses. That proposition aimed to raise California’s minimum wage to $18 per hour.

Even though Proposition 32 didn’t pass, California’s minimum wage will still go up on Jan. 1, 2025. That’s when the state’s minimum wage will increase $16.50 per hour regardless of the size of the business.

This change will not supersede AB1228, which, as of April 1, 2024, set the state minimum wage for workers at food chains at $20 per hour.

To be considered a fast food chain, the business must do all of the following:

Be a “limited service restaurant” in California, which means limited or no table service and people pay for their food before they are served.
Be part of a restaurant chain with at least 60 establishments nationwide.
Be “primarily engaged in selling food and beverages for immediate consumption.”

This applies regardless of whether the fast food establishment is owned by a franchisee or not.