The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 on Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 an hour by 2020.

Restaurant workers and owners could be highly impacted by the new wage law. (photo by Jill Weinlein)

The minimum wage would be raised incrementally each year until 2020, where it would then be tied to the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. Small businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an additional year to implement the minimum wage, and would be expected to comply by 2021.

“Today, help is on the way for the one million Angelenos who live in poverty,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. “I started this campaign to raise the minimum wage to create broader economic prosperity in our city and because the minimum wage should not be a poverty wage in Los Angeles.”

The minimum wage would increase to $10.50 by July 2016, $12 by July 2017, $13.25 by July 2018, $14.25 by July 2019, and $15 by July 2020.

The proposal comes with exceptions for some businesses. Nonprofits with more than 25 workers could apply for waivers if they meet certain requirements for executive pay, serve transitional workers or are primarily funded through government grants. Teenage workers up to age 17 can make 85 percent of the minimum wage. The council also voted to establish an Office of Labor Standards that would enforce the minimum wage law and tackle issues of wage theft in the city.

The push for minimum wage in the council began on Labor Day of last year when Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 an hour. Since then, the city council has been holding meetings, receiving public comments and commissioning studies to examine the potential impacts.

“I am pleased that the public was able to weigh in on the proposed minimum wage policy during four meetings across the city, and that the city council had analysis and data from three separate and independent research firms that added to a robust conversation on raising the minimum wage in the city of Los Angeles,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell,13th District, said in a statement.

The proposal will have a widespread impact on the earnings of low-income workers across the city according to a study completed by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. The institute determined that nearly 609,000 workers will receive a wage increase by 2019. The median age of worker impacted by the proposal is 33. Almost 60 percent of those affected are over the age of 30. The teen population makes up about 3 percent of those impacted by the minimum wage increase. Nearly 80 percent of those affected are people of color.

“This victory was the result of a growing movement of working people standing up and raising their voices in the streets and at city council meetings for months,” said Mary Kay Henry, International President of the Service Employees International Union. “To their credit, the city’s elected officials listened, and as a result, L.A. is on the path to having an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”

Business groups from around the city voiced opposition to certain aspects of the law at the city council meeting on Tuesday. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce asked for a more lenient definition of a small business and to increase the number of employees to qualify from 25 to 250 people, a change that was not incorporated into the final proposal.

The California Restaurant Association and several restaurant workers spoke in favor of more exceptions for restaurants. Unlike some other states, California does not allow businesses to pay below minimum wage, even for tipped employees.

“We’ve been advocating for a total compensation model that would ensure that tipped employees are making a minimum of $15. We know the data shows they’re making well in excess of that,” said Matt Sutton, of The California Restaurant Associa-tion, at the meeting. A total compensation model would allow restaurant to factor in tips when calculating wages and to allocate tips to other employees within the restaurant.

Andrew Binder, of Philippe’s the Original, spoke on the difficulties that restaurants will face to keep prices down with an increase in labor costs.

“It is going to be very difficult and you’re going to see prices going up and I just wanted to voice that for the restaurant industry, it’s going to be very difficult for everyone,” Binder said.

However, the Restaurant Opportunity Center United (ROC United) sees the decision as a victory that sets Los Angeles apart from restaurants in the rest of the country.

“What’s especially significant is that yesterday’s 14 to 1 vote by the L.A. City Council would maintain one fair wage for all workers, without exemptions for the tipped workforce,” ROC United said in a statement.

Certain aspects of the policy will be considered at a later date, including a section about paid time off for workers that prompted strong opposition from business groups within the last week.

The city attorney will now draft legislation for the council to vote on later this year.