Home Depot managers face new California minimum wage rules store by store
Los Angeles, Berkeley and Emeryville jumped above the state floor July 1, forcing Home Depot managers to recheck store pay bands, postings and schedules city by city.
Minimum wages rose July 1 in Los Angeles, unincorporated Los Angeles County, Santa Monica, Malibu, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, Fremont, Long Beach, Milpitas, Pasadena and San Francisco, forcing California Home Depot managers to recheck pay rates store by store. Los Angeles moved to $18.42 an hour, unincorporated Los Angeles County and Santa Monica to $18.47, Malibu to $17.91, Fremont to $18.05, Pasadena to $18.57, Berkeley and San Francisco to $19.61, and Emeryville to $20.34. California’s statewide minimum was $16.90 as of Jan. 1, 2026, but local rules overrode it wherever work was performed in one of the covered jurisdictions.
The City of Los Angeles Office of Wage Standards adjusts its July 1 minimum wage each year using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers for the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In unincorporated Los Angeles County, the minimum wage rose from $17.81 to $18.47 effective July 1 under County Code Section 8.100.040.
For Home Depot, the immediate pressure lands on the lowest hourly bands, the job postings that compete with nearby retailers and warehouses, and the schedules built around peak weekend and evening traffic. If a store in Los Angeles, Pasadena or San Francisco has associates already clustered near the floor, a new hire paid at the updated minimum can narrow the gap fast and create compression for experienced cashiers, lot associates, freight workers and other hourly staff. Managers also need to keep internal pay communications and workplace postings aligned with the local rate.
Los Angeles hotel workers at properties with 60 or more guest rooms now earn $25.00 an hour plus $4.25 an hour for health care benefits, and Long Beach also has a higher hotel wage floor, per a July 9 Greenberg Glusker update. The same July 1 minimum-wage increases also covered Alameda, Berkeley, Cupertino, Emeryville, Fremont, Los Angeles, Malibu, Milpitas, Oakland, Pasadena, San Francisco and Santa Monica.
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