Moving to the forefront of a national campaign to boost the incomes of low-wage workers, Los Angeles lawmakers voted Wednesday to approve an ordinance hiking the citywide minimum wage to at least $15 an hour by 2020.
With the Wednesday action, which requires one more procedural vote by the City Council and the mayor’s signature, L.A. is slated to become the largest city in the nation mandating higher wages and joins Seattle, San Francisco and other municipalities that have adopted similar laws. The vote was 13 to 1, with Councilman Mitch Englander casting the sole vote in opposition and Councilman Bernard C. Parks absent.
Councilman Mike Bonin called the wage hike “probably the single biggest thing we will ever do to positively impact the lives of the people in Los Angeles.”
“Today we’re going to say that we’re a city that doesn’t tolerate poverty,” he said. “Today we’re going to show that a city that really, really sincerely believes in economic and social justice.”
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