(Sacramento) Mayor Kevin Johnson stood with business and labor leaders on Wednesday to announce a plan to create a minimum wage inside city limits that would rise to $12.50 an hour by 2020.
The proposal calls for a city minimum wage to start next year at $10, which will be the state minimum wage on Jan. 1. It would rise to $10.50 in 2017, $11 in 2018, $11.75 in 2019 and $12.50 in 2020. Beginning in 2021, the minimum would be indexed to inflation
The proposal was the work of the mayor’s minimum-wage task force, which included civic, labor and business leaders. But the mayor acknowledged that labor and business groups haven’t necessarily agreed to support it. He noted that groups “will still lobby as time goes on.”
The task force did not vote on the proposal. It was drafted by the group’s two leaders, City Council member Jay Schenirer and Elizabeth Landsberg from the Western Center on Law and Poverty. In an interview, Schenirer called the process collaborative, with task force members all providing ideas and concerns raised by their constituents.
The proposal will be considered in October.
