“This is just the beginning”. We didn’t stop in our city, we didn’t stop in our county, and we aren’t stopping now.
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After more than a year of organized action, fast food workers in New York are about to get what they have been demanding: a $15 minimum wage.
At the College of California, the hourly wage earners involve learners and total-time personnel who function in eating halls, dorms and bookstores or labor as gardeners, housekeepers and custodians. What started as a simple examination of the economics of the fast-food industry became an in-depth examination of the lives of the people working in it and what a stronger wage floor would mean for New York businesses and taxpayers.
“We need $15 not just in New York, but in Tampa and Tempe too”, said Bleu Rainer, who has worked in fast food for eight years, but makes only $8.05 an hour at a Tampa, Fla.
“I’m extraordinarily stoked”, stated Alexsandra Candelaria, 21, who works on the McDonald’s in Henrietta.
“How we support our workers and their families impacts Californians who might never set foot on one of our campuses”, Napolitano said in a statement.
Many workers say the increase would allow them to cope with the high cost of living, though restaurant owners say it will lead to higher prices and fewer jobs. “Labor is your second most expensive cost in this industry after the product”.
Under pressure from unions, McDonald’s announced in April a pay hike for 90,000 employees in company-owned restaurants, though that does not affect the majority of its restaurants, which are owned by franchisees. Carolyn Richmond, an attorney with New York City-based Fox Rothschild LLP, said she can’t see the legal justification for focusing on a single industry. “It’s what legally we call ‘arbitrary and capricious.'”. And because wage boards in New York generally have set the pay only of tipped workers, who are covered under a separate minimum wage law, the decision might be challenged in court.
Fast food workers have been fighting for a pay raise for years.
In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, election officials approved the language of a proposed ballot measure that would make the nation’s capital the first East Coast city to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
“UC now pays at least the state minimum wage in any given locality”, said Dianne Klein, a spokeswoman for the UC Office of the President.
State Sen. Rob Ortt, R-C-I-North Tonawanda, said, “The governor’s minimum wage hike is blatant government overreach that shows a clear disregard for the private sector and democratic separation of powers”.
The increase now goes to Cuomo’s labour commissioner for a final authorization. They spilled out into the streets, kicking off a boisterous rally applauding the governor for convening the Wage Board and calling on him to accept its $15 recommendation. If they’re not, a wage board can be impaneled to recommend what adequate wages should be. But not all attendees were pleased that the increase will be implemented gradually.
The average New York fast food cook or prep worker, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, earns $9.75/hour, roughly $20,280 a year – barely above the federal poverty line for a family of three.
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It’s the second time this year that a Wage Board pushed by Cuomo raised earnings in the restaurant industry.
