Calif. workers win ‘tremendous victory’ in fight for $15

(March 29, 2016) — Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, released the following statement regarding the announcement of a deal in California to raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022:

“Yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown, California state legislators and labor leaders announced a legislative agreement that will create the highest state minimum wage in the country, phasing in to $15 an hour by the year 2022 for all employers with 26 or more employees and 2023 for all other employers. The minimum wage will be indexed after that. The state of New York is rumored do strike a similar deal later this week.

“This is a tremendous victory for working families and great moment in labor’s fight to raise wages and create broadly shared prosperity. Labor and community are building a growing and  unbeatable movement to raise wages and workers’ voices.”

► From Huffington Post — Here’s how a $15 minimum wage could change California — Higher wages in California alone could boost a lot of people: Almost 18 million individuals are employed in the country’s largest state economy, and 118,000 of them make the minimum wage or less. Further, unlike federal law, California law does not permit employers to pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage. That means a hike to $15 would apply to the state’s tipped workers as well.