LOS
ANGELES - The nation's second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase
its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour, in
what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national
push to raise the minimum wage.
Maria Castañeda, a Unite Here
union member, raised a fist Tuesday during a City Council meeting in
Los Angeles before a vote to raise the city's minimum wage.Credit
Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times
LOS
ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase
its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour, in
what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national
push to raise the minimum wage.
The
increase — which the Los Angeles City Council passed in a 14-1 vote —
comes as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages, and
several large companies, including Facebook and Walmart, have moved to
raise their lowest wages. Several other cities, including San Francisco,
Seattle and Oakland, Calif., have already approved increases, and
dozens more are considering doing the same. In 2014, a number of
Republican-leaning states like Alaska and South Dakota also raised their
state-level minimum wage by referendum.
The impact is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of the city’s work force earns less than $15 an hour.
“The
effects here will be the biggest by far,” said Michael Reich, an
economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was
commissioned by city leaders here to conduct several studies on the
potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. “The proposal will bring
wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense
spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high
costs of housing.”
Tuesday’s
vote could set off a wave of minimum wage increases across Southern
California, and the groups pressing for the increases say the new pay
scales would change the way of life for the region’s vast low-wage work
force.
Indeed,
much of the debate here has centered on the potential regional impact.
Many of the low-wage workers who form the backbone of Southern
California’s economy live in the suburban cities of Los Angeles.
Proponents of the wage increase say they expect that several nearby
cities, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena, would
follow Los Angeles’ lead and pass ordinances for higher wages in the
coming months.
Many cities have enacted or proposed legislation in recent
years to create a local minimum wage that is higher than the federal
minimum and their state’s minimum, if there is one.
City minimum wage
Passed
Proposed
Seattle
$15
Portland, Me.
$10.68
New York
Oakland
$15
Chicago
Kansas City, Mo.
$12.25
$13
$15
Wash. D.C.
San Francisco
$15
Santa Fe, N.M.
Louisville, Ky.
$15
$10.84
$9
Los Angeles
$15
Albuquerque, N.M.
San Diego
$8.75
$11.50
The
increase could also reverberate nationally. Earlier this month, Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced that he is convening a state board
to consider a wage increase in the local fast-food industry, which
could be enacted without a vote in the state legislature.
After
the Los Angeles vote, Mr. Cuomo may feel pressure to reject an increase
that falls short of $15 per hour. “Look at what Cuomo talked about in
New York, leading the nation,” said Daniel Massey, a spokesman for the
union-led Fight for $15 campaign that has worked to increase the minimum
wage across the country. “I don’t see how he can go less than $15.”
Photo
A rally supporting a wage increase for fast food workers in Los Angeles last December.Credit
Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Los
Angeles County is also considering a measure that would lift the wages
of several hundred thousand people who work in unincorporated parts of
the county.
But
critics say the increase will turn the city into a “wage island,”
pushing businesses away into nearby places where they can pay employees
less.
“They
are asking businesses to foot the bill on a social experiment that they
would never do on their own employees,” said Stuart Waldman, president
of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a trade group that
represents companies and other organizations in Southern California. “A
lot of businesses aren’t going to make it. It’s great that this is an
increase for some employees, but the sad truth is that a lot of
employees are going to lose their jobs.”
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