Tonight the city council is scheduled to take the first step toward hiking the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10.55 cents an hour.
Supporters say the increase is needed to help deal with the high cost of living in Berkeley.
One business owner says she's all for it, even though Berkeley is also an expensive place to do business.
"I have no issue, because I started as being employee. So I like the idea," said Mona Rahmani from Campus Flowers.
The council is expected to refer the issue to the city's labor commission for further research. From there a formal proposal will be drafted, which would ultimately be returned to the council for a vote.
Raising Berkeley's minimum wage to $10.55 would match the minimum pay in San Francisco, which is the highest in the nation, $10.55 an hour.
Minimum wage workers in San Jose received a raise last month, when they started making $10 an hour. That has been a tough adjustment for some workers along Stevens Creek Boulevard, which divides San Jose and the city of Santa Clara.
On the Santa Clara side, they're making $8 an hour, $2 an hour less than workers across the street on the San Jose. And this is making the rounds online.
On Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Oakland, a group that wants the city to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour plans to hold a "May Day" rally near City Hall, at Broadway and 14th Street. Oakland's minimum wage is $8 an hour, the state minimum.
