LA could become latest US city to pass $15 minimum wage

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles on Tuesday is set to take a final vote on becoming the latest big U.S. city to endorse a hike in the minimum wage.

The City Council is extremely likely to make the move, which has the endorsement of Mayor Eric Garcetti and comes two weeks after a 14-1 preliminary vote on the wage.

The vote would bring a $15-an-hour wage by 2020 — more than double the current federal minimum.

Seattle and San Francisco recently passed laws to reach the same minimum wage over several years, and Chicago passed one last year that plateaus at $13.

Earlier this week, the California Senate approved a plan to again raise the statewide minimum wage, lifting it to $13 an hour in 2017 and tying it to the rate of inflation after that.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he also wants to boost his city's lowest hourly pay to $15.

Calls for raising the minimum wage at the national, state and local levels have built as the nation struggles with fallout from the recession, worsening income inequality, persistent poverty and the challenges of immigration and the global economy.

But even the backers of the plan acknowledge it's an experiment, with only patchy data on whether it hurts or helps economies at the city level.