Minimum Wage of California to Increase to $15 by 2022 (VIDEO)

California legislators and labor unions have reached an agreement that will take the state's minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour, a state senator said.

The plan is said to raise the minimum to $10.50 in 2017 and then gradually up it to $15 by 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply.

However the state senator quickly added up telling that this was yet done a deal and everyone were in good faith that this would go through to be passed in the legislature. The senator said that if an agreement were to be finalized, it would be part of his minimum-wage bill that was stalled last year for consideration.

"Sources say the Legislature could vote on the wage compromise as soon as the end of next week by amending an existing bill on hold since 2015," The Los Angeles Times reports. "Its passage would place California ahead of a minimum wage increase now being considered in New York, and would probably add fodder to the raucous presidential race."
If the legislature were to approve the minimum-wage bill, this would be avoided by take the issues with the ballot.

Sen. Mark Leno said that this was an issue he'd been working for many years and negotiations were done earnestly in good faith for sometime between the governor and stakeholders. Most proposals have the wage increasing about a dollar per year until it'd reach $15 per hour. California however had already one of the highest paying minimum wages with 10$ along with the state of Massachusetts.

Only Washington DC were higher with 10.5$ per hour. The hike to make it 15$ would the highest statewide change in the nation so far. Some states have passed higher minimums for government employees and state-contracted workers, and some cities with Seattle being one of them.

Oregon earlier approved a law that will increase that state's minimum wage to nearly $15 in urban areas over the next six years.