New York Times: NY Times: California Nears Deal to Adopt a $15 State Minimum Wage

LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers have reached a tentative deal to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022, potentially signaling the biggest advance yet in a campaign to increase pay for low-income workers that has reverberated in the Democratic presidential contest and in cities across the country.

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“This is a very big deal,” said Paul K. Sonn, the general counsel to the National Employment Law Project, a national research and advocacy group on wages. “It would mean a raise for one of every three workers in the state.”

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The ultimate sweep of any New York legislation remains unclear. But Mr. Sonn said that if both these states act, as appears likely, it would have a dramatic effect, given their size.

“The scale of having both New York and California would reverse years of falling wages and result in very substantial wage growth for workers at the bottom,” he said.

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