Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law, Senate Bill 525, that set health care workers on a path to a $25 minimum wage last October.

Across the state, about 426,000 California health workers are projected to benefit from the law.

According to estimates from the Labor Center at UC Berkeley, on average, these workers will earn about $6,400 more a year, or just over $500 more a month, the center's research shows.

As the law slowly begins to roll out, workers are beginning to understand that raises will be incremental, and some of them won't see the $25 rate perhaps until 2033.

Others are learning that their workplaces are exempt, meaning they won't be getting a raise at all, at least not because of this law.

For example, minimum wage employees at small private practices or medical groups with 24 or fewer doctors are excluded.

The law also exempts about another 70,000 workers at standalone nursing homes, because the law states these nursing homes will be included only when the state sets a separate standard dictating how much revenue must be spent on patient care.

Despite delays and confusion surrounding the implementation of the law, some employers have begun raising pay ahead of the state's deadline.

Chas Kelly, a clinical nursing assistant at a clinic operated by San Bernardino County, saw his wage hike reflected in his latest paycheck.

His pay increased almost $2 to about $23 an hour.

Kelly's union, Teamsters Local 1932, pressed the county of San Bernardino to implement their raises ahead of the state's deadline.

Some employers were already moving in that direction.

Last year, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions secured a labor agreement that boosted the minimum wage for employees there to $25 per hour.

The state's deadline to raise wages has been a moving target.

Looking for ways to alleviate the state's budget deficit, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to push back the law's original deadline to at least October 15.

With CalMatters, I'm Ana Ibarra.