The D.C. Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage in the nation’s capital, up from its current rate of $10.50. The move puts the rate at nearly double the federal minimum of $7.25.
The new $15 rate will be fully phased in by 2020 and will be raised automatically every year after that based on inflation. The council also increased the minimum wage for tipped employees to $7.50 an hour by 2022 and to half of the city’s minimum wage after that.
“The Fair Shot Minimum Wage Amendment Act of 2016 will put more money in the pockets of working families, and put more people on the pathway to the middle class. I thank the council for their swift action on this legislation, and I thank the many advocates, business owners and residents who came together on this path forward,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser, who said she would sign the measure.
Activists for a higher minimum wage, frustrated at the federal level, have turned their efforts to state and local governments in recent years and scored several victories. Tuesday’s vote puts D.C. in line with the California and New York, which recently moved to put their rates at the same level.
As recently as 2013, D.C. had a minimum wage of $8.25 an hour. Then-Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed an attempt to raise the minimum to $12.50 for big box retail stores, an effort directed at Walmart, which was opening its first stores in the city. The council then moved that December to raise the rate to $10.50 across the board.
The council and Bowser decided to follow New York and California’s lead and raise the rate again this year.
Fight for $15, a labor-funded activist group, declared it a huge victory and “the latest in a long string of wins from Seattle to New York to California. Together, we spoke up, we fought hard, and (once again!) we won.”
Bowser justified the move by arguing that the previous increase had not hurt the city’s economy. “These are good days for the District. Unemployment is down by a full percent since January 2015, and 20,000 jobs have been added during that same time,” she said.
Business groups have countered that the increase will hurt the economy, particularly medium and small-sized businesses that may not be able to afford the higher labor costs and will have to lay off workers or cut their hours. The Employment Policies Institute, a business-backed nonprofit group, said a survey it conducted of D.C. businesses found that almost half had already done that to adapt to the city’s previous minimum wage increases since 2013. It said one in five businesses was now considering moving to nearby Arlington, Va., where the minimum wage remains at the federal level of $7.25.
