Long Beach resident’s rejoice, the minimum wage will be raised from $10 to $13 an hour by 2019.
Just after midnight on Wednesday, the Long Beach City Council voted 6-2 in favor of the minimum wage increase. The plan for the increase is $10.50 an hour by Jan. 1, 2017, then $12 on Jan. 1, 2018 and $13 on Jan. 1, 2019. For nonprofits and businesses with 25 employees or fewer, their schedules will be a bit different; they’ll get to delay the hikes by one year for each of the scheduled increases.
As for the next steps, the approved proposal still needs to be written as an ordinance and then approved again by the city council. The city council also agreed to commission a study on the minimum wage hike, to see if it is indeed beneficial to Long Beach. If the increase proves successful, then the city council would consider increasing the minimum wage to $14 in 2020 and $15 in 2021.
Long Beach follows in the footsteps of Los Angeles, whom increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. What do you think?
