Los Angeles is set to become the largest American metropolis toraise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, in a decision its top laborofficial said should inspire other large U.S. cities to followsuit.

The City Council Tuesday voted to raise the minimum wage to $15by 2020, a move expected to boost the salaries of about 800,000workers. The decision puts Los Angeles in the company of SanFrancisco and Seattle, which are setting their wage floors at $15between 2018 and 2021.

Congress hasn't moved to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25an hour since 2009. That's left states and cities to act on theirown. They join companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., McDonald'sCorp, and Target Corp. that have pledged to boost pay underpressure from organized labor.

“We've now seen the second-largest city in this country raisewages for three-quarters of a million people and it shows thatlarge municipalities and some states are taking the lead on thisissue,” said Rusty Hicks, executive secretary-treasurer of the LosAngeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which represents600,000 workers.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio called for raising his city'sminimum wage to more than $13 in 2016 and $15 per hour by 2019. DeBlasio has said New York State's $8.75 minimum, which is due torise to $9 next year, is insufficient to make ends meet in thelargest U.S. city.

Chicago's City Council voted last December to boost the city'slowest wage to $10 an hour this July from $8.25, and to $13 by2019.

As of the beginning of the year, 29 states and the District ofColumbia had set their minimum wage above the federal level,according to the National Employment Law Project, a New York-basedadvocacy group.

In Los Angeles, the council voted 14-1 to phase in the wageincrease between July and 2020, which will keep California'slargest city ahead of the statewide minimum of $10 an hour at thebeginning of next year.

“Help is on the way for the one million Angelenos who live inpoverty,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement after the vote.“I started this campaign to raise the minimum wage to createbroader economic prosperity in our city and because the minimumwage should not be a poverty wage in Los Angeles.”

Garcetti, a Democrat, last year proposed raising the cityminimum wage to $13.25 an hour by 2017. His plan drew criticismfrom business groups who warned it would result in job losses, andfrom labor advocates who said it doesn't go far enough in a citywith the largest gap between incomes and housing prices.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce voted last September tooppose Garcetti's proposal, saying a minimum wage increase shouldbe part of a larger economic-development plan.

“The council's action today is going to have a significantimpact on small businesses and non-profits throughout the city,”chamber President Gary Toebben said in a statement. “We have beenurging the council to establish a longer phase-in so that smallbusinesses would not be forced to cut employee hours or eliminatejobs in order to offset the increase in the minimum wage.”

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