Claire Zillman

<p>Move over SeaTac, Washington. The city of Berkeley in California is coming for your title.</p><div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">
<p><a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2015-09-15-Item-59a-Revisions-to-Minimum-Wage.pdf" target="_blank">On Tuesday, the Berkeley City Council will consider legislation</a> that would give the city of 117,000 just northeast of San Francisco a minimum wage of $19 by 2020. If passed, the rate would be the highest of any city in the nation—an honor (or curse, depending on your views) that currently belongs to <a href="http://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/#/min_wage/Washington/SeaTac" target="_blank">SeaTac, Washington</a>, the city that&#8217;s home to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and currently has a minimum wage is $15.24, <a href="http://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/" target="_blank">according to the Economic Policy Institute&#8217;s minimum wage tracker</a>.</p>
<p>Berkeley&#8217;s minimum wage now stands at $10, and it&#8217;s set to increase to $12.53 by October 2016. The proposal from the Berkeley Labor Commission suggests expanding that hike to $13 instead, followed by increases to $14.50 in October 2017, $16 in 2018, $17.50 in 2019 and $19 in 2020.</p>
<p>Already, l<a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/09/14/berkeley-council-to-consider-19-minimum-wage/" target="_blank">ocal business owners have expressed their frustration over the suggested hikes</a>.</p>
<p>The city&#8217;s consideration of a $19 per hour minimum wage brings the ongoing nationwide discussion of minimum wage laws to a new level. Across the country, cities and states have raised their minimum wages by legislative action or ballot initiatives as the federal rate has stayed put at $7.25 per hour. Worker advocates—led by fast food workers who first walked off the job to protest poor pay in November 2012—have pushed for a minimum wage of $15 per hour, and <a href="http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/NELP-FPI-Fact-Sheet-New-York-15-Statewide-Minimum-Wage.pdf" target="_blank">in the past 18 months, six U.S. cities and counties</a> such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have met that demand. <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/09/10/new-york-minimum-wage/" target="_blank">New York became the latest state to consider a $15 per hour minimum wage after Governor Andrew Cuomo rallied for it last week</a>.</p>
<p>The Berkeley Labor Commission justified going beyond $15 per hour by citing its interest in making the city&#8217;s minimum wage a living wage. The wage schedule it recommended would bring Berkeley&#8217;s minimum wage to parity with the local cost of living in 2020, while &#8220;promoting and protecting the rights and the individual self-reliance of working people in Berkeley,&#8221; the proposal says.</p>
<p>The suggestion of $19 per hour will no doubt face fierce opposition from business leaders, but some economists may argue that in terms of what low wage workers deserve, that rate is is spot-on. Last week, David Cooper with the Economic Policy Institute <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/09/10/new-york-minimum-wage/" target="_blank">told <em>Fortune </em></a>that if the federal minimum wage had kept up with American workers’ productivity, it would land in the $18 or $19 per hour territory.</p></div>

This city just proposed the highest minimum wage in America

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This city just proposed the highest minimum wage in America | Fortune

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