SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) — Minimum wage hikes took effect Saturday in cities, counties and states across the country.
In San Francisco and Los Angeles, the increase is a step toward a minimum wage of $15 an hour — the “living wage” threshold that workers’ rights activists have been lobbying for since 2012.
The minimum wage went up to $14 an hour in San Francisco on Saturday, on the way to $15 next year. In Los Angeles, it rose to between $10.50 and $12, depending on the size of the business. It will hit $15 for all businesses in 2021.
“It’s a lot of help,” Agadette Solis, a 21-year-old IHOP hostess in Los Angeles, told CNNMoney.
She joined the Fight for $15 movement last year, and says her wages help support her two siblings and her mother, who has another baby on the way.
“Even if it’s $1 or $1.50, it’s more money for me to save up or spend on my siblings,” Solis said.
Her pay will jump from $10.50 an hour to $12.
Other parts of the country have approved more modest bumps. Maryland raised the minimum wage from $8.75 to $9.25 this weekend, then up to $10.10 next year.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Congress hasn’t raised it in 10 years.
Here’s where workers got a boost on Saturday, and how much they’ve started making.
- Chicago: $11 an hour.
- Cook County, Illinois: $10 an hour.
- Emeryville, California: $15.20 an hour for businesses with more than 56 employees, and $14 an hour for businesses with 55 or fewer employees.
- Flagstaff, Arizona: $10.50 an hour.
- Los Angeles: $12 an hour for businesses with more than 26 employees, and $10.50 an hour for businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
- Maryland: $9.25 an hour.
- Milpitas, California: $11 an hour.
- Montgomery County, Maryland: $11.50 an hour.
- Oregon: $10.25 an hour. (Exception: $11.25 an hour in the Portland metro area, and $10 an hour in some counties designated as “non-urban.”)
- Pasadena, California: $12 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees, and $10.50 an hour or businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
- San Francisco: $14 an hour.
- San Jose, California: $12 an hour.
- San Leandro, California: $12 an hour.
- Santa Monica, California: $12 an hour for businesses with 26 or more employees, and $10.50 an hour or businesses with 25 or fewer employees.
- Washington, D.C.: $12.50 an hour.
Sources: Employment Policies Institute, National Employment Law Project, National Conference for State Legislatures and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
