Pasadena wage notice highlights California's $20 McDonald’s fast-food minimum

California’s fast-food minimum of $20 an hour controls at covered McDonald’s stores in Pasadena, and that higher rate takes effect on the next payroll after July 1, 2026.

Pasadena’s citywide minimum wage rose from $18.04 to $18.57 per hour on July 1 for all businesses, regardless of size. The city’s official notice protects employees who assert their rights to the city minimum wage from retaliation. But the local number is not the ceiling for every worker inside city limits: California’s separate fast-food rule, effective April 1, 2024, applies to covered fast-food restaurant employees and supersedes the local rate when the employer fits the state definition.

That state definition matters for McDonald’s because the law is aimed at chains with 60 or more locations nationwide. Covered employers must post a supplement to the minimum wage order. California’s general minimum wage is $16.90 an hour for all employers, effective January 1, 2026.

For crews and shift managers, the question is whether the restaurant is paying the correct base wage for the category it falls into. If a McDonald’s store is covered and a pay stub still reflects $18.57 or $16.90, workers can ask whether the location is being classified correctly, whether the required wage supplement is posted, and whether the restaurant has been set up under the fast-food standard instead of the lower local or general minimum.

Pasadena’s minimum wage ordinance was adopted by the City Council on March 14, 2016, and AB 1228 created the Fast Food Council to address wages, working conditions, training, and health and safety. The council can raise the fast-food wage annually by the lesser of 3.5 percent or the CPI-U increase.