(Photo by UFCW Local 400)

Less than a year after D.C. lawmakers came to an agreement to raise the minimum wage to $15, the Montgomery County Council has followed suit.

The Council passed a bill today, by a 5-4 vote, that would have the wage gradually rise from the current rate of $10.75 (scheduled to go up to $11.50 in July) to $15 by 2020.

Lawmakers added a provision to give businesses with fewer than 25 employees another two years to comply, in response to concerns by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. It remains to be seen, though, if that concession and several others were enough to forestall a veto.

A county spokesman told The Washington Post that Leggett will study the issue before making a decision, and that the county executive had wanted to delay the bill for all businesses until 2022.

Urging Leggett to sign the bill, Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, said that “tens of thousands of workers employed in the County would benefit, a substantial number of whom are likely to be female, African American, or Latino.”

If passed, Montgomery County would be the first jurisdiction in Maryland with a $15 minimum wage.