The People of California find and declare that:

(a) The purpose of The Living Wage Act of2022 ("the Act'') is to ensure that workers receive
wages that will financially support them and their families.

(b) To achieve this purpose, The Living Wage Act of 2022 will increase the California minimum
wage to $18 per hour by 2025 and in each year thereafter the minimum wage will be adjusted to keep pace with the cost of living in California.

(c) For more than 12 years, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25. If it had
increased at the rate of productivity growth since 1960, it would be $24 right now.

(d) Many working Californians, including essential workers, parents and seniors, have full-time
jobs yet struggle to make ends meet. The minimum wage has not kept pace with the cost of
living and is worth less today than it was 50 years ago.

(e) California currently has the eighth highest income inequality among all fifty U.S. states and
Washington, D.C., which is forcing many working households into poverty.

(f) The most recent available data, which does not include the effects of COVID-19, shows that
more than 6.3 million Californians lack enough resources to meet their basic needs. More than a
third of Californians are living in or near poverty. The large majority of California's low-wage
workers are adults, not teens. The average age for low-wage workers is 36, compared to 40 for
all workers. 46 percent of low-wage workers have children, and 40 percent are married. Californians cannot support a family on the current minimum wage of $15 per hour, or $31,200
per year, for people working full time.

(g) Despite being employed full-time, Californians who are paid the current minimum wage
often must rely on the State's social safety net to meet their basic needs. Californians' wages are not keeping up with inflation or our state's rising cost of living. Research finds that a single
parent living in California with two children would need to make $50 per hour to get by, but our
state's minimum wage is only $15 per hour.

(h) The purchasing power of the minimum wage will continue to erode if it is not adjusted yearly to reflect increases in the cost of living.

(i) Raising the minimum wage will increase the earnings of many Medi-Cal recipients, making
them eligible for federal subsidies on California's health benefit exchange, saving the State
millions of dollars a year in Medi-Cal costs.

U) Californians working in a wide variety of jobs and industries are paid the minimum wage, and
it is the goal of this Act to protect all such workers, regardless of whether they are employed by
single, multiple, or joint employers.

(k) Income inequality, a growing population of working poor, and wage stagnation in California
create strong justification for boosting income-support for working households struggling to
meet basic needs.