Health systems have adjusted wages to prepare for the higher rate, which the UC Berkeley Labor Center estimated will affect 322,000 workers employed directly by health-care facilities. Another 76,000 workers will see indirect wage increases due to “spillover effects” on the wages of workers at the same facilities earning slightly more than the new minimum wage, the center said.

“The issues that Kaiser workers are striking over – understaffing and insufficient wages – are widespread for health care workers,” said Laurel Lucia, director of the health care program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “Given the increasing problems health-care workers have faced since the pandemic and the surge in strikes across industries, I would not be surprised to see more hospital strikes in the coming months.”