California’s 2026 Minimum Wage Is $16.90: Check Your Paystub and the SB 294 Know Your Rights Notice

Statewide minimum wage in California is $16.90 an hour right now, for every employer size. It is scheduled to be $17.40 on January 1, 2027. If your stub still shows $16.50 — or a “training rate,” or tips counted toward the floor — you are being underpaid. And if you never got the 2026 Know Your Rights notice, your employer missed a separate Labor Code duty.

What the Law Says

DIR’s minimum-wage FAQ (dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_minimumwage.htm) states: effective January 1, 2026, the statewide minimum wage is $16.90 per hour for all employers, unless a higher industry or local wage applies. Fast-food and certain health-care rates are higher. Cities and counties may be higher. The employer must pay the highest applicable rate. You cannot agree to work for less. Civil Code sections 1668 and 3513 and the DIR FAQ are blunt on that.

DIR News Release 2026-66 (August 13, 2026) states that beginning January 1, 2027, the statewide rate increases to $17.40 per hour. The Department of Finance certified that increase on July 31, 2026. The same release notes that the exempt-salary threshold moves with it: $17.40 × 2 × 40 × 52 = $72,384 beginning January 1, 2027. Piece-rate workers must still net at least the hourly minimum for every hour worked.

Labor Code section 226(a) requires an accurate itemized wage statement at each payment showing, among other items: gross wages, total hours worked, piece-rate units and rates if paid by the piece, all deductions, net wages, inclusive pay-period dates, the employee’s name and last four digits of SSN or an employee ID, the legal entity’s name and address, and all applicable hourly rates and the corresponding hours at each rate. If you cannot tell from the stub whether you were paid $16.90 for every hour, the stub itself is a violation. A knowing and intentional failure that injures the employee is $50 for the first pay period and $100 for each later pay period, capped at $4,000, plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. Labor Code section 1194 recovers unpaid minimum wage plus interest, fees, and costs. Section 1194.2 adds liquidated damages equal to the unpaid minimum wage in listed minimum-wage actions.

SB 294, the Workplace Know Your Rights Act, is Labor Code sections 1550–1559 (Stats. 2025, ch. 667; effective January 1, 2026). Section 1553 requires the employer, on or before February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, to give each current employee a stand-alone written notice — by the method the employer normally uses (personal service, email, or text if it should arrive within one business day). The same notice must go to each new hire, and annually to the employee’s authorized representative. The notice must describe: workers’ compensation; notice of immigration-agency inspection under section 90.2; protection against unfair immigration-related practices; the right to organize or engage in concerted activity; and constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement at the workplace, including Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. It must also list new legal developments the Labor Commissioner deems material, and the agencies that enforce those rights. Language: the language the employer normally uses, if DIR has a template in that language. DIR has posted templates (English, Spanish, Chinese simplified and traditional, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi, Arabic, Urdu) and English and Spanish worker and employer videos. Section 1554 required those videos by July 1, 2026. Section 1557 prohibits retaliation for exercising these rights. Section 1558: up to $500 per employee per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner or a public prosecutor.

DIR News Release 2026-14 and the Labor Commissioner’s New Labor Laws page confirm the annual notice and the videos.

How to Fight Back, Step by Step

1. Pull your 2026 paystubs. Confirm the hourly rate is at least $16.90, or the higher local or industry rate where you actually work. Piece-rate: divide pay before deductions by hours worked. If the result is under $16.90, you have a minimum-wage shortfall.

1. Check the nine section 226 items on the same stub: hours, rates (including overtime rate and hours at that rate), gross, net, dates, your name, last four of SSN or employee ID, and the legal-entity name and address. A stub that hides the rate is how underpayment stays hidden.

1. Ask whether you received the SB 294 stand-alone Know Your Rights notice on or before February 1, 2026, and whether new hires got it on day one. Ask for it in the language you actually use at work. DIR’s template and the worker videos are on dir.ca.gov (New Labor Laws / DLSE Know Your Rights). Watch the worker video in English or Spanish.

1. Write a short demand: the hours below $16.90, the dollar shortfall, liquidated damages under 1194.2, and any 226 penalties. Send it to the legal entity on the stub, certified mail. Keep the green card.

1. If the employer does not pay, file a wage claim with the Labor Commissioner: dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm, or 833-526-4636. DIR: three years for minimum wage, overtime, breaks, sick leave, illegal deductions, and unpaid reimbursements; four years with a written contract. You can file regardless of immigration status. For a missing SB 294 notice, the Labor Commissioner enforces section 1558. Retaliation for asking about pay or filing is illegal (sections 98.6, 1102.5, 1557).

Common Questions

My city is higher than $16.90. Which number controls?

The highest applicable rate. DIR’s FAQ: when federal, state, and local rates conflict, the employer must follow the stricter standard — the one most beneficial to the employee. State $16.90 is the floor, not the ceiling. Fast-food and certain health-care wages are also higher than the statewide rate.

I never got the SB 294 notice. Is that a wage claim?

It is a Labor Code violation under sections 1553 and 1558, enforced by the Labor Commissioner (or a public prosecutor), with a penalty of up to $500 per employee per violation. It is separate from a wage claim for unpaid $16.90. File both if both are true: the missing notice, and the short paycheck. DIR posted the template and the videos so you can see what you should have received.

Get the free Wage Theft Recovery Kit at wagetheftkit.com — demand-letter templates, a penalty-stack worksheet, and DLSE filing checklists. Free, no email wall. The same kit is at justiceprompt.com. Educational use only — not legal advice.