DeLeo also proposed raising the minimum wage for tipped workers from its current $2.63 an hour to $3.75 by 2016.

At a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event, the powerful Winthrop Democrat outlined his chamber’s plan for boosting the state’s hourly wage floor: $9 at the beginning of July this year, $10 in 2015, and $10.50 in 2016.

Massachusetts House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo Thursday proposed gradually raising the state’s minimum wage from $8 to $10.50 an hour by the middle of 2016, brightening prospects for a wage hike to become law this year.

The push comes as President Obama has pressed for a federal minimum wage hike and called on state officials to boost their minimum wages.


DeLeo’s proposal sets up weeks or months of wrangling with the state Senate. That chamber passed a larger wage hike late last year, but the House declined to take up the issue.

Now, however, legislators and political observers say they are bullish that compromise legislation will reach the desk of Governor Deval Patrick, who strongly supports a wage boost, before the chambers recess this summer.

State Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat, said he was optimistic about a hike becoming law in coming months “in part because all the leadership voices are singing from the same page and also because it’s the right thing to do for the economy.”

He added there was widespread support for such a measure among his colleagues.

Former Senate president Robert E. Travaglini said with consensus in both chambers and the corner office, he expected “they will reach an accord.’’

In his remarks, DeLeo also outlined a package of changes to the state’s unemployment insurance program that he said would lower the tax burden on most employers, shield them from short-term fluctuations in employment trends, and close “loopholes” in the system for certain public sector employees.


“It is a careful balancing act and one that involves improving conditions for workers at the bottom of our wage scale, while creating a climate that permits businesses to create jobs,” DeLeo said in a speech before people from banks, health insurers, law firms, and lawmakers at the Seaport Boston Hotel Thursday morning.

The Senate measure, passed in November, would incrementally raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour by the middle of 2016 and connect subsequent hikes to inflation. It would boost the tipped minimum wage to half of the regular minimum wage.

DeLeo said his proposal would not tie future increases to inflation.

Speaking to reporters after the event, DeLeo said his team came to the $10.50 figure after reviewing the Senate legislation, economic factors, and a proposed ballot measure on the issue. He called a hike to that level by 2016 “a fair wage.”

The speaker added that “businesses, for the most part, were against tying it to economic factors” such as inflation.

Raising the minimum wage has been a top priority for liberal activists in Massachusetts as well a key issue for Democrats nationally.

Obama pressed for a federal minimum wage hike in his January State of the Union address.

On Thursday afternoon, Patrick welcomed DeLeo’s proposals, calling them “a really positive step forward on both fronts.”

He did not say whether he will back DeLeo’s plan for a $10.50 wage or the Senate bill to lift it to $11, because he wants to help them broker an agreement. “I’m going to do what I can to help them get to ‘yes,’” he said in an appearance on WGBH-FM.


The governor pointed out that the two sides do not appear to be very far apart. “If the House really does come in at $10.50, there’s not that much difference between the two numbers,” he said.

David Falcone, a former top aide to Murray and now a consultant at the public relations firm Denterlein, cautioned that there were significant complexities in hammering out a compromise on unemployment reform and the minimum wage, particularly with concerns from the business community.

But, he said, “it’s certainly more likely to get done with the legislative and executive branches rowing in the same direction.”

Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos.