San Jose voters embraced a ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage in the city, with more than half the precincts reporting the $2 hourly increase held onto its lead early Wednesday morning.

“We’re thrilled,” said Stacey Hendler Ross, spokeswoman for the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, which led the campaign for Measure D to raise the minimum wage in the city. “We always thought San Jose voters would know the right thing to do. Of course we’re not counting all our chickens before they’re hatched, but right now, we’re just ecstatic.”

Approval makes San Jose one of a few cities nationwide to set its own wage floor, even though businesses had argued the $2 hourly raise would only lead to fewer jobs.

Amanda Phan, a 25-year-old assistant manager at a San Jose restaurant opposes Measure D to increase the minimum wage.

“I think it will hurt us in the long run,” said Phan as she left her polling place in East San Jose. “I started working when the minimum wage was $5 an hour. That motivated me to find a better job and go to school.”

Only a handful of other cities nationwide set their own minimum wages: San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M.

Measure D supporters had argued that raising the wage floor in San Jose from the current state hourly minimum of $8 to $10 with annual inflation adjustments is a moral necessity in pricey Silicon Valley. San Jose State sociology students hatched the idea that quickly gained labor union support. Backers raised more than $277,755 toward its passage.

Opponents, chiefly restaurant and other business groups including the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce argued a city-mandated wage hike would only lead employers to cut staffing or hire fewer workers and make San Jose less attractive to new businesses. They raised more than $412,595 toward its defeat.

Though Mayor Chuck Reed signed the ballot argument against Measure D, the City Council was divided and officially took no position.

Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/johnwoolfolk1.