In an effort to hike the base pay in Washington, D.C., the city council approved raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour, one of the highest rates among U.S. cities, on Tuesday.
The current minimum wage of $8.25 in the District will rise in 2016, and then be indexed for inflation, Reuters reported. The pay hike comes in the wake of fast-food workers across the U.S. going on strike this month as part of a campaign to raise the pay to $15 an hour.
The measure was opposed by Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray on the grounds of it being unclear and ineffective towards the labor market. He proposed an increase to $10 an hour instead. According to Reuters, the measure received unanimous final approval from the council and was able to pass over Gray's veto.
Approvals of similar measures were made last month when the council coordinated raising the base wage with lawmakers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, in Washington's Maryland suburbs. The three jurisdictions will form a region with 2.5 million residents once the higher pay takes effect and will have the highest minimum wage among the 50 states, Reuters reported.
Virginia, which borders Washington, requires employers to pay the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.
The capital and the region could appear less attractive to businesses if the higher wages took effect, especially since Virginia's rate remained unchanged, Jim Dinegar, the president and chief executive of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, told Reuters.
"They think they're doing this in a vacuum," he said. "They're not."
The District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce has requested the minimum wage to be raised to $10 over three years and then be indexed to inflation, Reuters reported. Among U.S. states, Washington, D.C. has the highest hourly minimum wage at $9.19 an hour. City workers from Sonoma, Calif., enjoy the highest rate, at $15.38 an hour.
Eight of the 13 counties with the highest median income last year were in the Washington, D.C. area, The Census Bureau reported.
