The Berkeley City Council voted 8-0 to pass a measure that would raise the city’s minimum wage from $11 to $15 in the next two years, during a special meeting Friday.
The raise will begin on Oct. 1 at $12.53 and rise to $13.75 on Oct. 1, 2017 and then $15 the following year.
According to city documents, the unexpected meeting was organized in hopes the City Council could come up with a compromise between dueling measures on the November ballot. Both measures proposed different timelines to raise the city’s minimum wage – one would raise it to $15 by next year and the other measure suggests the $15 raise be made until 2019.
Under the ordinance passed Friday, Berkeley's minimum wage will rise to $13.75 on Oct. 1, 2017, and then to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018. It will go up according to the consumer price index after that.
The City Council will reconvene at another special meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday to hold a second reading of the ordinance.
