Governor Brown held two ceremonies announcing the minimum wage increase, one in Los Angeles and one in Oakland.
At the event in Northern California, Brown acknowledged the bill won’t erase the income gap in the state.
“This is a step. It’s now the whole answer by any means. But it’s an important step to raise the floor even as the ceiling gets farther and farther apart,” he said.
The law will gradually increase the state’s minimum wage until it reaches ten dollars an hour by 2016.
Some supporters of the bill say it should have included an automatic cost-of-living escalator. The final version does not. But Brown says the bill is reasonable and pushes businesses to do more, while not pushing them too far.
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