The Pasadena City Council voted Monday to boost the city’s minimum wage through a series of tiered increases that will top out at $13.25 an hour in 2018.

The first hike will kick in July 1, boosting Pasadena’s current hourly wage of $10 to $10.50. Additional increases will raise it to $12 an hour on July 1, 2017 and $13.25 an hour on July 1, 2018.

The impact of those pay hikes will then be reviewed to see how they affect unemployment, poverty, job creation and the city’s overall business climate. If the feedback is positive, the city’s minimum wage could then be boosted to $14.25 an hour in 2019 and $15 an hour in 2020.

The council directed City Attorney Michele Beal Bagneris to prepare an ordinance and return within 30 days requiring the payment of a city-wide minimum wage.

“We feel there are a whole series of moral, social equity and economic reasons that made this compelling,” Mayor Terry Tornek said Tuesday. “People who are working full-time should not be living in abject poverty.”

Some businesses fear the wage increases will result in reduced hours and lost jobs. But Tornek said they will benefit workers and the city as a whole.

“People will have more disposable income and many will be spending it locally,” he said. “And now that the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County have adopted their minimum wage ordinances, this will allow businesses here to remain competitive for the best workers. We want to remain competitive. But frankly, most of us have concluded that there is no way to justify a circumstance where people work 40 hours and week and try to support a family on $20,000 a year.”

The Economic Development and Technology Committee, a subcommittee of the City Council, made a series of recommendations tied to the wage hikes that are designed to put an end to workplace exploitation by providing protection for employees, regardless of whether they are full- or part-time.

Under the recommendations, employers who fail to pay the city’s minimum wage would be subject to penalties of $100 to $500 per employee for every day the wage is not paid. The city could likewise revoke the licenses of employers who fail to promptly pay employee judgements against the city for such violations.

Peter Dreier, a professor of politics and chairman of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College, said the pay hikes will have a positive effect on the city.

“The new law will directly improve the lives of about 30,000 workers and lift about 10,000 people out of poverty,” Dreier said in an email. “It will also generate about $230 million a year in additional consumer spending in Pasadena, which will help local businesses.”

A group of wage-hike supporters gathered in front of City Hall before the council took action Monday night. The meeting was standing room only with both supporters and opponents of the plan in attendance. An overflow of people had to be housed in two adjacent rooms.

“It was all very peaceful and respectful,” city spokesman William Boyer said. “They followed the mayor’s request that everyone be civil and open to other people’s opinions as they spoke.”

Not everyone was thrilled with the council’s decision, including Pasadena Chamber of Commerce President Paul Little.

“We tried to give them a more moderate approach that wouldn’t have as much potential impact on business employment and the economy,” said Little, who attended Monday night’s council meeting. “Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 could significantly impact employment. Businesses would have to raise prices and that means fewer customers and fewer hours for employees. You’d also have low- and mid-level management people who would end up getting cut.”

The chamber’s proposal would have boosted Pasadena’s minimum wage to $10.50 an hour in 2017 with successive yearly hikes that would bring it to $12.50 an hour in 2020.

In an analysis presented to the council, the chamber noted that many minimum-wage earners in the city are part-time, student workers or others whose primary income is significantly boosted by gratuities, tips, commissions or other income.

Based on census data and other information, it’s likely that fewer than 500 Pasadena residents would benefit from any increase in the minimum wage, the report said.

Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed by the chamber said a minimum wage hike would raise prices, 52 percent said it would reduce the city’s workforce, 46.4 percent said it would reduce hours for existing workers, 17.6 percent said it would reduce operating hours for businesses and 21.6 percent said it would prompt businesses to stop hiring entry-level, unskilled workers.