The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to raise the city’s minimum wage from $9 per hour to $15 per hour by 2020, the New York Times reports.
According to the Times, the vote is a huge symbolic win for labor groups and unions that have been pushing for minimum wage increases in cities and states across the nation. The news is also especially noteworthy for Los Angeles workers, since half of the city’s workforce currently makes less than $15 an hour, according to some estimates.
Michael Reich, an economist with the University of California, Berkeley, emphasized to the New York Times just how impactful this change will be in Los Angeles.
“The effects here will be the biggest by far,” Reich explained. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had already begun to move the ball on increasing the minimum wage for fast-food workers, and now observers say that he’ll be expected to advocate for a $15-per-hour wage as well.
Read more at the New York Times.