CAMPBELL — Campbell is still considering if it will join Santa Clara County cities in raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019.

The city council voted 3-2 at a lengthy Dec. 6 meeting to raise the city’s minimum hourly wage a few years before the state’s minimum wage reaches $15. However, at a meeting on Dec. 12 the council denied the second reading of its approved ordinance that would raise the minimum wage with a 3-2 vote, voiding the decision made six days prior.

Council members Jeffrey Cristina, Paul Resnikoff and Michael Kotowski rejected the ordinance and asked for more information if tipped workers could be exempt from gaining a higher minimum wage at the accelerated rate proposed by the city.

If approved, on July 1, 2017 the hourly minimum wage in Campbell would rise to $12. On July 1, 2018, the hourly rate would rise to $13, then to $15 on July 1, 2019.

The council’s consideration is part of a regional effort that has been in the works for a few years. Campbell joins cities such as Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose that have chosen to hit the $15 wage mark by 2019. The state will raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2022.

Nine cities within the county have decided to take no action at this time or are still considering a minimum wage increase. Those cities include Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Santa Clara and Saratoga, according to the Dec. 6 city staff report.

Campbell’s potential wage increase does have some exceptions to help businesses adjust to the change. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees would be exempt from the wage increase and will follow the state’s schedule of $15 per hour by 2022. Meanwhile, trainees would be exempt from being paid the city’s mandated minimum wage for their first 120 days of employment.

Nonprofits would have a different schedule to reach the $15 per hour mark. As suggested by Vice Mayor Liz Gibbons, nonprofit organizations will reach the $15 threshold in 2020 instead.

Business owners from the city’s downtown strip told the council that the new schedule for them to pass increased costs on to customers.

“I understand that eventually getting to $15 an hour is already happening, but getting faster is going to hurt the small businesses faster,” Chris Yamashita, owner of Brown Chicken Brown Cow, told the council.

Yamashita added that the city’s accelerated wage increase would cost his business more than $40,000.

Councilman Michael Kotowski said Silicon Valley can handle an increase in minimum wage at a rate faster than the rest of the state due to the high cost of living. He added that the state’s 2022 schedule would help residents in places like Bakersfield and Stockton and less so in the Santa Clara Valley.

“It wouldn’t work here. It’s not one size fits all,” he said.

Councilmen Jeff Cristina and Paul Resnikoff cast the dissenting votes on Dec. 6, citing the wage increase as a burden for Campbell businesses.

“It’s very challenging for me because there’s still an extreme burden for businesses,” Cristina said. “Still to this day between both meetings we have not had one speaker who has had skin in the game who has said, ‘Yes, this is a good idea’.”