Gov. Jerry Brown and labor union leaders have reportedly reached a deal to raise California’s minimum wage to $15 per hour over six years — matching the new minimum wage in the City of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Times reported the tentative deal, which Brown could announce as early as Monday, would raise the minimum from the current $10 per hour to $10.50 in 2017, $11 in 2018 and then by $1 per year through 2022. After that, further increases would be indexed to the inflation rate.
Small businesses — those with fewer than 25 employees — would have an extra year to comply with each upward increase.
The reported agreement comes a week after a ballot initiative raising the minimum wage to $15 was approved for the November general election. That would likely be withdrawn.
In June, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law a measure that raises the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour by 2020 — two years earlier than the Brown plan.
The Los Angeles ordinance boosts the wage in California’s largest city, but millions more Southland workers would be covered by a new state minimum.