By
April 4, 2016 2:20 p.m. ET
California and New York’s minimum wage workers will begin getting
raises next year after Democratic governors of both states signed
increases into law Monday, making them the first to adopt mechanisms for
reaching a statewide pay floor of $15.
In California, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2022. In New York, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo
signed a law that will set a $15 minimum wage in New York City and its
suburbs by 2021, and eventually set a statewide $15 wage floor for other
parts of the state.
At an event in Manhattan where he was joined by Democratic presidential front-runner
Hillary Clinton , Mr. Cuomo predicted the wage increase in New York
would resonate nationally .
“We
want economic fairness, we want economic justice and we want it now,”
he said. “People are angry, yes. Not only in this state but in this
nation.”
Both states
reached deals last week
on significant minimum pay increases that moved swiftly through
legislatures, despite objections from opponents who warned of the impact
on businesses, and higher costs for consumers.
California
already has one of the highest minimum wages of any state at $10 an
hour. Under the law signed Monday, the minimum wage will increase to
$10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017, for businesses with 26 or more employees.
Smaller businesses will get an extra year to comply.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25. But cities including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles have set higher minimum levels.
Speaking
at a signing ceremony in Los Angeles on Monday morning, Mr. Brown said
having a minimum wage that allowed a worker to support his family was
about “living in a moral community.
“Economically minimum wages
may not make sense,” he said. “But morally and socially and politically
they make every sense, because it binds the community together and makes
sure that parents can take care of their kids in a much more
satisfactory way.”
Mr. Brown signed a minimum-wage increase in 2013, though he had recently cautioned against further increases.
Despite that, he threw his support last week behind
an approach that
gave him some control over an issue that appeared set to be decided
directly by voters in November. One of two, labor-sponsored initiatives
to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour qualified for the November 2016
ballot in March, pressuring lawmakers to pass a wage increase in the
legislature.
Compared with the initiative, Mr. Brown’s bill gives
businesses more time to adjust to increases, and gives a governor the
ability to postpone increases in case of a recession or budgetary
downfall.
Write to Alejandro Lazo at
alejandro.lazo@wsj.com and Erica Orden at
erica.orden@wsj.com
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