The D.C. Council unanimously approved a plan to ratchet up the city’s hourly minimum wage to $15 on Tuesday, and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser pledged to sign the measure into law, likely lifting low-income pay rates in the District to among the highest in the nation within four years.
The vote marked a victory for local and national unions, which targeted the nation’s capital more than a year ago for a symbolic victory in the “Fight for $15” campaign.
A final vote is required later this month, but that appeared to be a formality.
The District’s hourly minimum, now $10.50, would rise to $15 by 2020. After that, annual increases would be automatic and tied to inflation, as unions have wanted. But to assuage the District’s powerful restaurant-industry lobby, D.C. lawmakers have demanded that tipped workers’ pay rise by a smaller amount.
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