Berkeley's Minimum Wage Increases To $10 Starting Wednesday
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- Minimum wage in the city of Berkeley was raised to $10 per hour Wednesday, the first in a gradual rise to more than $12 an hour in two years, city officials said.
The hikes were approved in a unanimous vote by the City Council in June and will keep Berkeley ahead of raises in the statewide minimum wage.
The city's wage will rise to $11 on Oct. 1, 2015, and to $12.53 an hour on Oct. 1, 2016. That schedule would catch Berkeley's minimum wage up with an anticipated hike in Oakland.
A measure on the November ballot in Oakland would raise the minimum wage there to $12.53 an hour next March. Oakland's City Council rejected a proposal in July that would have more gradually raised the minimum wage.
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates is asking other East Bay cities to pass similar minimum wage laws and coordinate their adoption.
"I have proposed that other East Bay cities join with us in adopting a regional minimum wage and am pleased that discussions for such an approach are underway in some of our neighbor cities," Bates said in a statement Tuesday.
One nearby city, Richmond, is already committed to raising its minimum wage to $13 by 2018. San Francisco and San Jose have also recently raised their minimum wages.
The statewide minimum wage is set to rise to $10 an hour on Jan. 1, 2016, and was raised to $9 an hour in July of this year.
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