Which Bay Area city employment laws apply on top of California law?

California law is the floor. In the Bay Area, the city where an employee actually works often sets a higher one. This page is the hub for the local rules: find the cities where your people work, then follow the links to each city’s page. Figures were checked on September 27, 2026, against each city’s own posting or a published alert from a California employment firm.

Where does the work happen?

That is the only question that matters for coverage. A company headquartered in Walnut Creek with one employee who works two days a week in San Francisco owes that employee San Francisco’s minimum wage for the San Francisco hours. San Francisco’s ordinance reaches anyone who works at least two hours a week inside the city, wherever the employer is based (McGuireWoods summary of the 2026 San Francisco rate). Remote employees count too: an employee working from home in Berkeley works in Berkeley.

2026 Bay Area minimum wage by city

City	2026 rate	Adjusts
Emeryville	$20.34	July 1
Mountain View	$19.70	January 1
Berkeley	$19.61	July 1
San Francisco	$19.61	July 1
Belmont	$18.95	January 1
Sunnyvale	$19.50	January 1
Richmond	$19.18	January 1
El Cerrito	$18.82	January 1
Santa Clara	$18.70	January 1
Palo Alto	$18.70	January 1
Cupertino	$18.70	January 1
Los Altos	$18.70	January 1
Redwood City	$18.65	January 1
San Mateo	$18.60	January 1
Milpitas	$18.50	July 1
San Jose	$18.45	January 1
South San Francisco	$18.15	January 1
Fremont	$18.05	July 1
Alameda	$17.76	July 1
Hayward	$17.79 ($16.90 at 25 or fewer employees)	January 1
Oakland	$17.34	January 1
San Leandro	$16.90 (state rate)	January 1
California (state)	$16.90	January 1

Berkeley’s minimum wage and San Francisco’s adjust together each July 1, while San Jose’s minimum wage, like Oakland’s, adjusts each January 1.

Sources: CalChamber, July 1, 2026 local increases and SFGate, January 2026 Bay Area increases, checked against the UC Berkeley Labor Center inventory. Emeryville’s $20.34 is the highest city rate in California after its July 1 increase. January cities will announce 2027 rates this fall; I update this table when they post.

Oakland's minimum wage and San Francisco's minimum wage both sit above the state rate, and Emeryville's is the highest in the region.

San Leandro minimum wage: the state rate applies

San Leandro has its own minimum wage ordinance, but its city rate sits below the state’s, and the ordinance itself switches off whenever the state minimum is higher (San Leandro Municipal Code ch. 4-35, section 4-35-450). So a San Leandro employer pays California’s $16.90 an hour in 2026 and $17.40 from January 1, 2027, follows state sick leave, and tracks state deadlines. Workers who also put in hours in Oakland or San Francisco earn those cities’ rates for those hours.

The local rules beyond minimum wage

City	Local paid sick leave	Scheduling or hours rules	Other
Oakland	Yes: 40-hour cap under 10 employees, 72 at 10 or more	No	Service charge pass-through for hospitality
San Francisco	Yes: 40-hour cap under 10 employees, 72 at 10 or more	Formula retail scheduling rules	Health care spending, Fair Chance, paid parental leave, flexible work requests
Berkeley	Yes: 48-hour cap under 25 employees, 72 at 25 or more	Fair Workweek for covered industries	None beyond these
Emeryville	Yes: 48-hour cap at 55 or fewer employees, 72 above	Fair Workweek for retail and fast food	Highest city minimum wage in the state
San Jose	No local ordinance; state law applies	Offer hours to part-time staff before hiring (36 or more employees)	None beyond these

City contractors: living wage laws

Oakland and San Leandro set a higher wage for work done under a city contract, on top of their citywide rules. Neither applies to a business that only sells to the public.

• Oakland: a city service contract of $25,000 or more, or $100,000 or more in city financial assistance, requires the living wage on that work, $18.26 an hour with health benefits or $20.97 without from July 1, 2026, plus 12 paid days off a year (Oakland Municipal Code ch. 2.28; July 2026 rate).
• San Leandro: a business with 6 or more employees and a city service contract of $25,000 or more in a fiscal year ($100,000 for nonprofits), more than $100,000 in city financial aid, or a city lease or concession grossing $350,000 or more pays the city living wage on that work, set each July 1 ($19.38 with health benefits or $20.88 without from July 1, 2026), and gives 22 days off a year, at least 12 paid (San Leandro Municipal Code title 1, ch. 6; current rate poster).

Bidding on city work? Read the living wage terms in the contract before you price the job, since the higher rate and paid days off go into your labor cost.

How do local sick leave rules sit next to state law?

California requires at least 40 hours or five days of paid sick leave a year (Labor Code 246). The city ordinances predate that rule and set their own accrual caps. Where the two differ, the employer follows whichever is more generous to the employee on each point. In practice most multi-city employers pick one policy that satisfies the strictest city where they have staff, rather than running five sick leave banks.

What should a Bay Area employer do this quarter?

• List every city where each employee works, including remote employees’ home cities.
• Set each hourly rate at or above the highest applicable minimum, and calendar the January 1 and July 1 changes.
• Check exempt salaries too. The state exempt salary floor in 2026 is $70,304 a year, twice the state minimum wage for full-time work.
• Post each city’s required notices where employees in that city can see them, and send them electronically to remote staff.
• Match your sick leave policy to the strictest city on your list.

Local rules are where multi-site small employers most often slip, because payroll software defaults to the state rate. A compliance check-up maps every work location against these tables. For the state rules at each size, start with which California HR laws apply at your headcount.

Need an HR consultant in San Leandro, Hayward or anywhere else in the table? I work across the East Bay from Oakland, and the compliance check-up maps every city rule that applies to where your people actually work.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.

Data current as of September 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.