California Is Set to Raise Its Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

Read: How Liberals Started Winning the Minimum Wage Fight

California Governor Jerry Brown on Monday announced a tentative deal between labor unions and lawmakers to boost the minimum wage there to $15 an hour by 2022, which would be the highest of any state in America, as the LA Times reports.

The proposed law would raise wages for 38 percent of California's workers by an average of $4,000 a year, according to the Washington Post. The minimum wage jump itself would be phased in over a period of five years, increasing to $10.50 in January 2017, $11.00 in 2018, and a dollar more each year after that.

The statewide proposal comes after San Francisco and Los Angeles moved to raise their own minimum wages to $15 an hour, along with similar efforts in Oregon, Washington state, New York City, and Washington, DC. Like the successful campaign in Seattle, California's move is already raising heckles from some experts and the business community. But setting a floor for the minimum wage has gained popularity among Democrats since the financial crisis, and insurgent 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has made a $15 federal "living wage" a key part of his platform.