Los Angeles Minimum Wage: Council Votes to Raise It to $15 by 2020

Los Angeles voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour by 2020 in a 14-to-1 city council decision.

The New York Times reported that the effect of the change will be massive, as nearly 50 percent of the L.A. workforce earns less than $15 an hour.

Once Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has already voiced his support for the increase, passes the hike, Los Angeles will be the largest city in the country to adopt such a minimum-wage increase, joining Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Make no mistake,” councilman Paul Krekorian told the newspaper. “Today the city of Los Angeles, the second biggest city in the nation, is leading the nation.”

According to the LA Times, the vote instructed City Attorney Mike Feuer to develop an ordinance for executing the wage increase to be voted on next month.

The single Republican on the council and the only member to oppose the proposal was councilman Mitchell Englander, who told the LA Times the action could “make it impossible for entire industries to do business.”

Twitter users have voiced mixed reaction.

@EconEconomics 3000 thousand years of history

— DardoG (@dardogasparre) May 20, 2015

It's awesome that LA moved to raise the minimum wage to $15. We need to see this nationally.

— KOJI (@kojisaysaloha) May 20, 2015

Prior to the vote, city leaders commissioned a few studies on the potential effects of increasing Los Angeles’ minimum wage. University of California, Berkley economist Michael Reich led the investigations.

“The effects here will be the biggest by far,” Reich told The New York Times. “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.”

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