The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020 in the nation's second-largest city.

The Los Angeles council approved the proposal in a 14-1 vote after supporters and opponents argued for and against the plan, which would gradually increase the wage from the current $9 an hour, reports The Associated Press.

"Today, help is on the way for the 1 million Angelenos who live in poverty," Mayor Eric Garcetti said after the vote, according to ABC News.

Now that the proposal has been approved, the measure will be sent to the city attorney to prepare a wage ordinance that will go to a council committee. If the committee passes it, then the full council will take up another vote before it can be sent to Garcetti, upon its approval.

The vote comes during a time in which labor unions around the country have been calling for increases in wages.

Last month, almost 50 contracted workers from the U.S. Senate held a one-day strike with more than 1,000 labor activists at a rally demanding President Obama and Congress increase the minimum wage for federal contractors.

Workers from the Senate's cafeteria, janitorial staff and other food service positions walked off their jobs, calling on Obama to sign a "Model Employer Executive Order," which would give federal contracting preferences to companies that can provide their workers with a $15 an hour wage.

According to a spokesperson for Good Jobs Nation, one of the groups that organized the event, 600 of the workers who marched through Washington, D.C. were federally contracted employees.

During the march, demonstrators also stopped at the U.S. Capitol to demand a $15 minimum wage.

Back in February 2014, the president issued an executive order that raised the minimum wage to $10.10 for all workers on federal construction and service contracts. However, labor activists argue that the wage hike is not enough for workers to sustain.