San Diego Minimum Wage: Rates, Exemptions, and Enforcement

The San Diego minimum wage is $17.75 per hour as of January 1, 2026. That rate applies to anyone who works at least two hours in a calendar week inside the city’s boundaries, no matter where the employer is based or how small the business is. It sits above California’s statewide minimum of $16.90 and well above the federal $7.25 floor, and it adjusts every January based on regional inflation.

How San Diego’s Rate Compares

When more than one minimum wage could apply to your job, you’re entitled to the highest one. For work performed inside San Diego city limits, that’s almost always the local rate.

Federal minimum wage: $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009.
California minimum wage: $16.90 per hour, effective January 1, 2026.¹
San Diego minimum wage: $17.75 per hour, effective January 1, 2026.²

Why the Rate Changes Every January

San Diego’s minimum wage rises automatically each January 1 based on the prior year’s regional Consumer Price Index. The size of the bump varies with actual inflation rather than a fixed percentage. The move from $17.25 in 2025 to $17.75 in 2026 reflected that year’s CPI reading. No city council vote is needed for the adjustment to take effect.

Industry Rates That Override the Local Minimum

Two California industry-specific minimums are higher than San Diego’s local rate, so workers in those sectors earn the industry figure instead.

Fast Food

Since April 1, 2024, covered fast food employees in California must earn at least $20.00 per hour. The rate applies to restaurants that are part of a national chain with 60 or more locations nationwide.¹

Healthcare

Healthcare facility workers earn a rate tied to the facility type, phased in through June 30, 2026:

Large hospitals and integrated systems with 10,000 or more full-time employees, and dialysis clinics: $24.00 per hour.
Community clinics, rural health clinics, and urgent care clinics associated with community or rural health systems: $21.00 per hour.
Most other covered healthcare facilities: $21.00 per hour.
Safety net hospitals and facilities run by small counties: $18.63 per hour.³

Who the Ordinance Covers

The San Diego ordinance covers any employee who works at least two hours inside city limits in a calendar week.² Cross that threshold in any given week and every hour worked in the city that week must be paid at $17.75 or more. Where the employer is headquartered doesn’t matter. Where you live doesn’t matter. A worker commuting from Chula Vista to a jobsite inside the city is covered. Someone employed by a San Diego company but assigned entirely outside city limits is not.

The rule applies to all employers, including small businesses and nonprofits. There’s no size exemption and no tax-status exemption.⁴

Who’s Exempt

The exemptions are narrow. The municipal code excludes only participants in publicly subsidized youth employment programs, such as the San Diego County Urban Corps Program, and student employees, camp counselors, and program counselors of organized camps as defined under California Labor Code section 1182.4.⁴ Outside those categories, adult and minor employees alike are covered once they hit the two-hour threshold.

California also eliminated the subminimum wage for disabled workers as of January 1, 2025. Sheltered workshops and rehabilitation facilities can no longer pay below the standard minimum, so no employer in San Diego can use a disability-related exemption either.⁵

Tipped Workers Get the Full Rate

California does not allow a tip credit. Employers cannot count tips toward the minimum wage. If you serve, bartend, or work any tipped position in San Diego, your base pay is at least $17.75 per hour before tips, and the tips are yours on top of that. Federal law lets employers in some other states pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 per hour, but that rule does not reach California.

Independent Contractors and Misclassification

Minimum wage protections apply only to employees, but California uses a strict test for who actually counts as a contractor. Under the ABC test, a worker is presumed to be an employee unless the hiring company proves all three of the following:

The worker is free from the company’s control and direction in performing the work.
The worker performs tasks outside the company’s usual course of business.
The worker has an independently established trade or business of the same type.⁶

Fail any one prong and the worker is an employee, entitled to the minimum wage, overtime, and other protections. If your employer calls you a contractor but controls your schedule, sets your procedures, and assigns you work that’s core to the business, you’re likely an employee whatever the paperwork says.

What Employers Must Do

San Diego employers have several duties beyond writing the right number on a paycheck. They must post the city’s annual minimum wage notice in a conspicuous spot at every workplace or jobsite. They must give each employee, at hiring, a written document listing the employer’s legal name, any fictitious business name, address, phone number, and information on how the employer meets the ordinance’s requirements, including sick leave accrual. And they must keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid.²

The same ordinance also requires paid sick leave: one hour accrued for every 30 hours worked, capped at 80 hours, with unused leave rolling over. Employers who ignore the wage side are often out of compliance on sick leave too.

If You’re Not Being Paid the Minimum Wage

If your pay stubs show less than $17.75 for hours worked inside the city, start by raising it with your employer in writing. Underpayment is sometimes an honest mistake, especially for businesses whose workers cross multiple city boundaries with different rates. A written record matters if things escalate.

Complaint to the City

If the employer doesn’t fix it, you can file a formal complaint with the City of San Diego’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which runs the Minimum Wage Program.⁷ The city can impose penalties of up to $1,000 per violation and order back wages, liquidated damages, reinstatement, and other relief.⁸

Wage Claim With the State

You can also file a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. Claims can be submitted online, by email, by mail, or in person at a local office.⁹

Deadlines

You have three years from the date of the violation to file a minimum wage claim. Claims based on an oral promise to pay more than minimum wage must be filed within two years; claims based on a written contract, within four.⁹ Waiting past those windows can forfeit wages you are owed.

Liquidated Damages

Under California Labor Code section 1194.2, a worker paid below minimum wage can recover liquidated damages equal to the full amount of the unpaid wages, plus interest, which in practice roughly doubles the recovery. An employer avoids liquidated damages only by proving it acted in good faith and made a genuine effort to comply. Not knowing about the local rate is not a defense.¹⁰

Retaliation Is a Separate Violation

California and federal law both prohibit retaliation against workers who assert their wage rights. Firing, demoting, cutting hours, reassigning to worse shifts, or creating a hostile environment in response to a wage complaint is itself an independent violation that can trigger reinstatement, back pay, and additional remedies. Most employers who know the law correct underpayment quickly once it’s raised in writing, precisely because the retaliation exposure compounds the original problem.

1
Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage
2
City of San Diego. Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance
3
Department of Industrial Relations. Health Care Worker Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
4
City of San Diego. San Diego Municipal Code Chapter 3 Article 9 – Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage
5
Department of Industrial Relations. California Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
6
California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. ABC Test
7
City of San Diego. Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement
8
City of San Diego. Official Notice – San Diego Minimum Wage
9
Department of Industrial Relations. How to File a Wage Claim
10
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code 1194.2