Must-Read: Brian Watt: More Momentum Behind L.A. Minimum Wage Hike

…commissioned by the city of Los Angeles… [that] found that the benefits of raising L.A.’s minimum wage would outweigh the costs. ‘If the debate were over raising the minimum wage to $13.25 per hour by 2017, we would argue that the Berkeley-IRLE-estimated impacts are the most likely scenario,’ they write…. Los Angeles’s minimum wage currently stands at $9 per hour.  After Garcetti proposed raising the minimum wage to $13.25, some members of the council proposed increasing the wage to $15.25 per hour by 2019. Wenger and von Wachter were less confident about the outcomes of that increase because that is longer time period and a larger wage increase than any city has previously experienced. ‘Whatever avenue is chosen, we highly encourage the City Council to follow the example of other city minimum wage ordinances and monitor the economic situation in the city’… developing complementary programs to aid both workers and firms that are most [adversely] affected…