California has become the first state in the nation to commit to raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour, with the increase to take place gradually through the start of 2016, under a bill Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Wednesday.
The law raises minimum pay in the most populous U.S. state from its current rate of $8 per hour to $9 by July 2014, and $10 by January 2016, well above the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Following President Obama’s call to raise the minimum wage in his 2013 State of the Union address, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Representative George Miller (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Workforce Committee, have introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. It would:
Raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2015, in three steps of 95 cents each.
Adjust the minimum wage to keep pace with the rising cost of living starting in 2016 – a key policy reform known as “indexing,” which ten states are already using to prevent the minimum wage from falling in value each year
