San Francisco voters approve $15 minimum wage

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last updated 8 January 2015

San Francisco voted Tuesday to push its minimum wage to $15 an hour, the nation's highest.

The city will increase its minimum wage to $12.25 per hour in May 2015 and to $13 per hour in July 2016. After that, it will go up by one dollar every year until reaching $15 per hour in July 2018. A minimum wage of $15 an hour would bring a full-time employee's pay to $31,000 a year.

San Francisco's current minimum wage is $10.74, but the city is rife with economic inequality between its high-paid and low-income residents. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the measure had more than 76 percent support among voters.