He pushed through a measure in July that would raise the mininum wage for fast-food workers in NY City to $15 by 2018 and statewide by 2021. Yes, they need to come work for one day, and I guarantee you it will change their minds. SeaTac, the small city with the Seattle Tacoma worldwide Airport, just saw its $15 minimum wage upheld in court, so that’s also new.
Advertisement
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, although more than half of USA states have acted to raise that amount.
The rally was part of a nationwide day of action organized by the Service Employees worldwide Union in coordination with local organizers across the United States, organizer Greg Overturf said.
“We are restoring the fairness and economic justice that built the American dream and standing up for what’s right”, Cuomo said in a statement. Approximately 9,000 employees are outside of NY City, and 1,000 within NY City.
Minimum wage demonstrations in Sacramento were coordinated Tuesday with similar demonstrations around the country.
Demonstrators say the move didn’t go far enough and vowed they’ll continue to fight for $15 dollars an hour.
About 100 protesters at a Chicago McDonald’s blocked the drive-through lanes during rush hour, chanting, “We work!”
De Blasio’s budget office noted the phased-in wage hike for city workers is being performed on a faster schedule than has been proposed for state workers.
Opponents of the minimum-wage increase, like the Empire Center for Public Policy, claim it will cost the state close to 200,000 jobs, while increasing the costs of goods and labor.
Advertisement
“The governor’s action will have positive practical impact and will be good for New York’s economy as a whole”. “It has a vast, far reaching affect and so its really time for a few corporations to give up a little bit of money and give it back to the workers who are making them that money”. But it will also be worth watching if there’s geographic element to support and/or opposition, because a $15 per hour wage in Manhattan isn’t the same thing as it is in Utica. Republican Majority Leader John J. Flanagan expressed this hesitancy in late September, shortly after Cuomo announced his support for the wage increase.
