After more than two years of sometimes-heated debate, the Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance requiring companies that receive tax breaks from the city to pay their employees a living wage.

“I want very badly to vote for a living-wage ordinance, and I want very badly for it to be unanimous,” Mayor David Dunfield said shortly before the vote. “I think we’re there.”

The ordinance defines the living wage as 130 percent the federal poverty level for a family of three; in Douglas County, that’s about $9.53 an hour in 2003.

Proponents applauded after the 5-0 vote, as did senior officials of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce who attended the meeting. The chamber had long opposed a wage requirement but changed course after the living wage-friendly Progressive Lawrence Campaign swept the April election and captured a majority of the commission.

“We’re very pleased,” said David Smith, a member of the Kaw Valley Living Wage Alliance that pushed the measure. “We’re very, very pleased.”

After the vote, Chamber CEO Lavern Squier declined to speculate on what the wage requirement would mean to the city’s economic development efforts.

“We’ll deal with the policy as the city has crafted it,” he said. “From our perspective, we’ll look at all the aspects of this and include it in our communications with outside industries.”

At least one national expert said the requirement shouldn’t hamper Lawrence’s efforts to attract new business.

Karim Khan is editor-in-chief of Business Facilities magazine, which focuses on how companies choose new sites to expand.

“I don’t think that (living wage) knocks you out of the running” in attracting new business, Khan said.

“People who are building a new facility expect — if they know how the incentives game is played — know there will be some strings attached,” he said. “In some cases there are no strings attached, but that tends to be in communities that are really small or really need investment.”

Khan said that, in addition to incentives, companies also look for a location that puts it close to customers and suppliers — and for communities that have a “pro-business attitude.”

“If (companies) detect the economic developers are on their side, but the county commissioners or city council don’t have their best interests in mind, that’s not going to be attractive to them,” Khan said.

The ordinance requires two votes before official adoption. The next will be at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.