Mayor Eric Garcetti on Saturday signed into law an ordinance that gradually raises the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour.
The ordinance raises the minimum wage for businesses with 26 or more employees to $10.50 per hour in July 2016. The wage again rises to $12 per hour by July 2017, $13.25 per hour by July 2018, $14.25 per hour by July 2019 and finally to $15 per hour by July 2020.
Businesses with 25 or fewer employees will follow the same schedule on a one-year delay under the ordinance.
It also calls for minimum wage to continue increasing in 2022 based on the cost of living.
Garcetti signed the ordinance at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, the same park where he and members of City Council launched a campaign to raise the city's minimum wage from $9 per hour on Labor Day 2014.
"With this vote, the minimum wage will no longer be a poverty wage in Los Angeles," Garcetti said last week. "I want to thank the City Council for joining me in building a city that provides greater opportunity and possibilities for all of our residents."
Critics have said the minimum wage will life in LA harder for businesses, which may have to raise costs or lay off workers.
U.S. & World
Los Angeles, a city with 3.8 million residents, will be the largest city in the country with a $15 minimum wage.
City Council gave its final approval on Wednesday for the ordinance with a 12-1 vote, with Councilman Mitchell Englander the lone dissenter.
