Washington, DC city council raises minimum wage to $11.50/hr in 2016

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Washington's council on Tues approved raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour, one in every of the best rates among U.S. cities and a part of the wealthy region's push to hike base pay.

The minimum wage in the U.S. capital would rise in 2016 from the present $8.25, and then be indexed for inflation. The council gave unanimous final approval to the live, which it 1st passed period agone.

Democratic mayor Vincent grey has opposed the live, oral communication it had been not legendary however it would affect the market, and urged an increase to $10 an hour instead. The unanimous vote suggests that the council may pass it over Gray's veto.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce has drawn up raising the minimum wage to $10 over 3 years and then assortment it to inflation.

The council coordinated raising the base wage with lawmakers in Montgomery and aristocrat George's counties, in Washington's Maryland suburbs. They approved similar measures last month.

Once the higher pay takes impact, the 3 jurisdictions would type a vicinity with two.5 million residents and a minimum wage above any of the five0 states. Virginia, which borders Washington, needs employers to pay the federal rate.

Washington state has the best hourly minimum wage among U.S. states at $9.19 an hour. Among town employees, those in Sonoma, California, enjoy the best rate, at $15.38 an hour.

Gray had vetoed a bill this fall that may have needed Wal-Mart Stores INC. and other big retailers to pay a 50 percent premium over the city's current minimum wage.

The pay hike comes once fast-food employees went on strike this month across the united states as a part of a campaign to boost pay to $15 an hour.

The city council voted because the region emerges comparatively unhurt from the recession and with the capital's economy and population growing.

The agency reported  last week that eight of the 13 U.S. counties with the best median income last year were in the Washington space.