Los Angeles City Council to vote on $15 minimum wage

[June 03, 2015]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday will vote on a proposal to increase the minimum wage in the nation's second-largest city by 2020 to $15 an hour from the current $9, officials said.

This comes just over two weeks after the council voted 14-1 to give preliminary approval to the measure.

It would require businesses with more than 25 employees to gradually increase wages year-over-year to meet the $15 pay level by 2020, while smaller businesses would have an extra year to comply with each step in the wage escalation ladder and would get to $15 in 2021, according to a text of the proposed ordinance.

The Los Angeles City Council's support of the measure is seen as a victory for labor and community groups that have successfully pushed for similar pay hikes in other major U.S. cities, including Seattle and San Francisco.

California's minimum wage is $9 an hour.

With the federal minimum wage stagnant at $7.25 an hour since 2009, supporters of raising pay for the lowest paid workers have expressed little hope for an increase from the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress.

Opponents of minimum wage hikes say they place an undue burden on businesses and would force employers to lay off workers or move.

Los Angeles City Council members Curren Price and Paul Krekorian have pushed to have the measure approved. Krekorian's office in an email said the final vote would occur on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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