California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into a law a bill raising the state's minimum wage from US$10 (NZ$14.64) to US$15 (NZ$21.96) an hour by the year 2023, making the nation's most-populous state the first to boost pay to that level for the working poor.
The move marks the culmination of a deal Brown brokered with labour leaders and state Democratic leaders and puts California, home to one of the world's biggest economies, at the forefront of US states and cities that have moved to surpass the federal minimum wage, which has remained at US$7.25 an hour since 2009.
"This is about creating a little tiny bit of balance in a system that every day becomes more unbalanced," Brown said before signing the legislation.
"There's a lot of anger going on in the presidential campaign," he said. "And one of the sources (of that anger) certainly is the way the average American is being treated."
Both houses of California's legislature approved the measure on Thursday, fast-tracking proposed legislation announced two days earlier by Brown, a popular Democrat.
Raising the minimum wage has cropped up on many Democratic candidates' agendas ahead of the November elections in the hopes it could help mobilise voters. Democratic presidential hopeful US Senator Bernie Sanders has called for raising the federal minimum wage to US$15 an hour by 2020.
In New York on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that will eventually raise the minimum wage in New York City and surrounding areas to US$15 per hour. Other parts of the state will see the current US$9 per hour rate rise to US$12.50 within five years.
Moderate Democrats and most Republicans complained that the legislation was being rushed through, and would disproportionately harm businesses in poorer parts of the state, where the cost of living is not high enough to warrant such a dramatic wage hike.
Reuters
