Cuomo, at a union rally in NY City, announced he will raise the minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour by 2018 in NY City and 2021 in the rest of the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the order raising the minimum for state government workers from an hourly rate of $8.75 to $15.00 per hour starting in 2018.
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A spokeswoman for the city said that labor agreements already put city employees ahead of the state’s minimum wage phase-in. Rallies with fast-food and other low-wage workers were scheduled for 500 cities, including outside Tuesday’s televised debate of Republican presidential candidates in Milwaukee.
A spokesman for The Business Council of NY said, “We believe the legislature should have a voice in this process”.
Coming exactly one year before Election Day 2016, Tuesday’s Fight for $15 protests kicked off an effort to mobilize the 64 million US workers who earn less than that to register and vote.
NY Senate’s Republican declined to endorse the $15 minimum wage, saying the issue will be discussed in detail by his conference and predicting “some kind of compromise”.
But the governor said it was about a broader push to get a $15 per hour minimum wage for all workers. When fully phased in on July 1, 2021, this wage increase has an annual projected cost of roughly $20.6 million, including the anticipated effect of fringe benefits. It affects around 10,000 state workers, including custodial staff and office clerks.
“Whoever feels that way should come and work at McDonald’s for one day for one day”.
Danny Donohue, president of CSEA, a leading public sector union, praised Cuomo and said the pay boost will have a “positive practical impact and will be good for New York’s economy as a whole”.
“We need to get behind all of the low-wage workers”, she says.
Tens of thousands of fast food workers in close to 300 cities across the country are striking for more money and better working conditions.
Holbert and others on strike across the nation want law makers to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour.
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Many states and cities are raising the minimum wage on their own, but few have reached the $15 level sought by protesters.
