Los Angeles' mayor is pushing for a minimum wage of $13.25, which would significantly benefit at least 40 percent of the work force, The Huffington Post reported.

Mayor Eric Garcetti is circulating a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017, after which further raises would depend on inflation, Bloomberg reported, citing the Los Angeles Times.

If the proposal passes, it would not be the first in California, and LA would join other cities in the state that have relied on pay raises at the local level to help the local workforce.

Bloomberg reported that San Francisco was the first in the country to raise the wages locally to $8.50 in 2003 and in 2012 San Jose increased the minimum to $10.

The state legislature has also approved an increase to $9, which went into effect in July, and pre-emptively approved a raise to $10 in 2016.

The proposed minimum wage raise in Los Angeles would help poverty decline by 4 percent, The Huffington Post reported, based on information from think-tank Center for American Progress.

"The city's combination of low wage levels and high living costs -- 27 percent above the national average -- means that cash-strapped families will immediately spend that extra income, increasing revenues for local businesses," Rachel West, senior policy analyst at CAP, told the Huffington Post.

The raise would affect more than half a million residents but received a mixed review by the business leaders.

"If Los Angeles is to maintain our standing as a world-class city, we need to increase the minimum wage," billionaire businessman Eli Broad said in a statement, reported the Huffington Post. "Raising the minimum wage would help lift people out of poverty and stimulate our local economy."

But others warn that it could lead to businesses closing and forcing an increase in unemployment, or for wage earners to get greedy and push for a $15 wage.

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