After nearly a year of debate, the Los Angeles City Council has approved a preliminary plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020. Tuesday’s vote was 14 to 1 and makes Los Angeles the largest city in the nation to adopt a $15 wage.
Under the proposal, Los Angeles’ minimum wage will rise from the state-mandated $9 an hour to $10.50 in July 2016. It increases to $12 in July 2017; $13.25 in July 2018; and $14.25 in July 2019. The measure now goes before the city attorney who will draft an ordinance, with the final vote to be held by the city council next month.
Labor groups have hailed the plan as a critical move to raise stagnant wages and reduce poverty among the city’s lowest-paid workers. But business advocates have always insisted such a plan will do more harm than good for the very people it is intended to help.
Ruben Gozalez of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce said many businesses would resort to laying off workers to absorb the additional costs. Council Member Mitch Englander, the lone dissenter Tuesday, said the plan puts the city at a competitive advantage.
“This is an experiment,” Council Member Paul Koretz acknowledged Tuesday. “If anyone tells you they know exactly how this is going to go … they’re not being honest with you.”
Los Angeles is one of several cities to have adopted a $15 minimum wage in the past year, following in the footsteps of Seattle, San Francisco, and Emeryville, California. The increase will impact as many as 800,000 workers.
Read more about Tuesday’s vote here.