Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law Saturday a Los Angeles City Council proposal that will gradually increase the city’s minimum wage every year to $15 an hour by 2020.
Garcetti signed the measure at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in South Los Angeles. The signing included a ceremony attended by business and labor leaders and seven members of the city council, according to a press release.
At the event, Garcetti said he thinks the minimum wage increase will alleviate the city’s poverty levels.
“We have always prospered the most when everyone is able to spend money into our economy,” he said.
According to the press release, over 600,000 workers in Los Angeles currently earn minimum wage.
The first change to the minimum wage will take effect in July 2016, when it will increase to $10.50 an hour. After that, the minimum wage will increase about a dollar every July, reaching $15 an hour in 2020.
The current minimum wage in Los Angeles is $9 an hour. The California minimum wage will increase to $10 starting Jan. 1, 2016.
Businesses with fewer than 25 workers will have an extra year to fulfill the plan’s requirements.
Compiled by Roberto Luna Jr., Bruin senior staff.