THE city of West Hollywood officially has the highest minimum wage in the United States after the pay floor reached $19.08 (£15.58) an hour on Saturday.

Hollywood actors said last week that they may be days from joining screenwriters in what would be the first two-union strike in the movie industry in more than six decades.

Workers in West Hollywood welcomed the increase amid soaring rent, gas and food prices.

Norberto Ruiz, who works in a liquor store in West Hollywood, told the Los Angeles Times that a wage increase last summer allowed his family to purchase a $150 (£119) air conditioner.

“I don’t think people understand how much an extra dollar or two can change people's lives,” Mr Ruiz told the news outlet.

But some employers still grumbled about the increase.

Lucian Tudor, chief executive of upmarket restaurant La Boheme, told the Los Angeles Times: “These pay increases are about superficiality and about opportunistic politicians who are just trying to make a name for themselves.”

Meanwhile, Hollywood actors have voted overwhelmingly to authorise their leaders to call a strike if no deal is reached on a new contract which ran out last Friday.

Talks also went past the deadline in 2014 and 2017, and agreements were reached both times.

Some actors have expressed worry that their leaders may not be pushing hard enough.

More than 1,000 of them, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, have added their names to a letter to negotiators saying they are willing to strike, and are concerned they are “ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.”

The letter says: “This is not a moment to meet in the middle.”

The guild represents over 160,000 screen actors, stunt performers, broadcast journalists, announcers, and hosts, but a strike would involve only actors working on television shows and films.