The city of Los Angeles will raise its minimum wage beginning July 1, from $15 to $16.04, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday.
When the increase formally takes effect, L.A. will again have a higher minimum wage than the state’s and one of the most for any city in the U.S.
City officials noted the raise is due to the recent increase in inflation, which reached a nearly 40-year high in December after spiking 7% over the previous year, according to the Associated Press.
Under L.A. Municipal Code, the city’s minimum wage will go up “based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” starting on July 1, 2022, and annually after that, a news release from the mayor’s office stated.
The L.A. City Council passed an ordinance to raise the hourly wage for the city’s lowest-paid workers back in 2015, becoming the nation’s first big city to stipulate that the minimum wage hit $15 per hour by 2020. About 600,000 Angelenos will be affected by the change, the release noted.
“We fought to raise the minimum wage because hard work should always be met with the dignity, respect, and opportunity that fair pay brings,” Garcetti said in the release. “Our decision to end poverty wages in L.A. caused a ripple effect across the nation, and this additional increase is the latest reason to celebrate today – and a reminder of how our fight for better wages is far from finished.”
Last month, California’s minimum wage also climbed to $15 per hour for companies that employ at least 26 workers, becoming the first in the nation to hit that threshold. The amount will go up to $15 per hour for all businesses statewide next year.
While L.A.’s minimum wage will be among the highest in the Golden State, there are several cities in California that pay more — some even above $17 per hour, according to a Pew Research analysis.
And elsewhere in Los Angeles County, the West Hollywood City Council approved an ordinance last November that would set the city’s minimum wage for all workers there to $17.64 in July 2023.
