California Restaurant Workers

Alameda County — The $30 Measure

Workers Built This Campaign.

Rather than outsourcing the signature drive to a commercial firm, the Alameda County Living Wage For All campaign trained hundreds of low-wage service workers to lead it. Working with One Fair Wage, the Black Organizing Project, Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, UAW Region 6, and community allies, workers knocked on doors, stood outside grocery stores, and gathered more than 100,000 signatures one conversation at a time.

The measure would phase in a $30 minimum wage, primarily for work in unincorporated Alameda County. On July 23, 2026, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified that the petition contained enough valid signatures to qualify the measure for a future vote. If passed, it would establish the country’s first voter-enacted $30 minimum wage, with the same wage floor for every worker it covers.

Workers Earned A Vote. Three Supervisors Delayed It.

Workers had qualified the measure, and public economic analyses of the policy were already available. Even so, speakers opposing the measure called for another study — and three members of the Board of Supervisors voted to order one, pushing the measure off the November 2026 ballot. Workers know what their paychecks cannot cover. Rent, groceries, medicine, and transportation do not wait for another study.

The voters are already there. A January 2026 Lake Research Partners survey found 71% of likely Alameda County midterm voters support gradually raising the minimum wage to $30 for all workers, including tipped workers. After hearing arguments for and against — including an opposition argument about prices and small businesses — support stood at 69%. Three supervisors delayed the vote. Workers kept organizing.

Living Wages Strengthen The Communities Small Businesses Depend On.

“You need to ensure that you have staff members that can survive and support your business.” — Nigel Jones, owner, Calabash Restaurant

One job should be enough — and workers and small-business owners are part of the same communities. The measure phases in $30 by employer size: for most industries, large employers reach $30 in 2030, midsize employers in 2035, and small employers in 2037. Movement Economics projects the measure would raise affected workers’ earnings in unincorporated Alameda County by an average of 19.2% and add $61 million in annual worker earnings by 2030, with overall employment there projected to remain stable. A separate Movement Economics analysis models every Alameda County jurisdiction adopting the same policy: by 2030, higher earnings for 182,000 workers, $2.2 billion in additional annual worker earnings, about $1 billion added to county GDP, and roughly 1,300 additional jobs.

The campaign broke through months before the turn-in. At a press availability outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Courthouse in Oakland on May 18, 2026 — while Elon Musk and Sam Altman were in court inside arguing over the next economy — OFW President Saru Jayaraman and Iris Barrera Hurtado of Trabajadores Unidos Workers United led the press.

“Inside this courthouse today, two of the richest men in America are arguing over which one of them gets to dominate the next economy. Outside this courthouse, working people are arguing over whether they can afford rent and groceries in the same month. Workers in Alameda County will not settle for crumbs.” — Press availability, Dellums Courthouse, May 18, 2026

Coverage: KALW — “The people behind Alameda County’s $30 an hour minimum wage initiative” (July 15) · KALW — Dellums Courthouse action (May 18) · ABC7 · KTVU FOX 2 · Local News Matters · AP wire. Bilingual signs (“TRABAJADORES NO SE CONFORMARÁN CON MIGAJAS”) reached photographers nationally. The “piece of the pie” line stuck.

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