L.A. to boost minimum wage to $15

Michael Winter | USA TODAY

Los Angeles lawmakers Tuesday voted to boost the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, the largest city to try to help its lowest-paid workers.

The action will gradually increase the guaranteed hourly wage from $9 in the country's second largest city. Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle have enacted similar measures. The council's 14-1 vote directs the city attorney to draft an ordinance that will require final approval later this year.

The first increase, to $10.50 an hour, will come July 1, 2016, followed by annual steps until July 2020, when the minimum wage will stand at $15 an hour. Two years later, increases will be pegged to the Consumer Price Index.

For non-profit organizations with 25 or fewer employees, the scheduled raises won't begin until 2017.

"Today, help is on the way for the one million Angelenos who live in poverty," Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement, adding that the minimum wage "should not be a poverty wage in Los Angeles."

Organized labor backed an increase but sought $15.25 an hour and sooner than 2020.

The local Chamber of Commerce opposed the move, saying businesses would have to cut staff, reduce hours or relocate, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"The very people (council members') rhetoric claims to help with this action, it's going to hurt," said Ruben Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. It's simple math. There is simply not enough room, enough margin in these businesses to absorb a 50-plus-percent increase in labor costs over a short period of time."

A survey released Tuesday by Los Angeles County Business Federation found that 35% of the nearly 600 local business owners questioned said the wage boost would force them to cut jobs or workers' hours, with small businesses being hit hardest.

The same survey found that 66% believe business conditions will improve this year, and that 40% are planning to hire more workers -- a 10% increase over 2014.

After the L.A. council last year boosted the hourly rate to $15.37 per hour wage for hotel workers, the campaign for a higher citywide minimum wage gathered steam. Garcetti initially proposed $13.25 by 2017, but labor organizers representing workers in other low-paid industries -- gaming, food service, airport, textile, manufacturing, distribution, laundry and transportation -- lobbied hard for $15.