Protestors fight for a $15 minimum wage (Photo : Reuters)
By a vote of 14-1, the Los Angeles City Council authorized on May 19 an increase in the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour.
Los Angeles became the largest American city that's trying to help its lowest-paid workers survive amid the growing income inequality in the U.S.
The council's vote is a victory for a powerful coalition of labor unions, immigrant groups, community activists and newly elected council members that only months ago pushed through a $15.37 minimum wage for workers at large hotels.
The proposed wage increase will raise the pay of an estimated 800,000 workers in the nation's second largest city. There are an estimated 2.8 million workers in Los Angeles.
The $15 minimum wage will be phased in over time. The first increase will see the wage rise to $10.50 an hour by July 1, 2016. This will be followed by annual hikes until July 2020 when the minimum wage will reach $15 an hour. Two years later, wage increases will be pegged to the Consumer Price Index.
For non-profit organizations with 25 or fewer employees, the increases won't begin until 2017.
"Today, help is on the way for the one million Angelenos who live in poverty," said LA Mayor Eric Garcetti in a statement.
He said the minimum wage "should not be a poverty wage in Los Angeles".
Organized labor backed an increase but sought $15.25 an hour but sooner than 2020. The LA Chamber of Commerce opposed the increase, claiming businesses would have to cut staff, reduce hours or relocate, said USA Today.
A survey released May 19 by the Los Angeles County Business Federation reported that 35 percent of the 600 local business owners questioned said the wage increase would force them to cut jobs or workers' hours, with small businesses being hit hardest.
The same survey, however, found that 66 percent believe business conditions will improve this year. Some 40 percent of these respondents said they plan to hire more workers, or a 10% increase over 2014.
Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle have enacted similar measures to raise the minimum wage to $15.
