Opposition by business groups and Senate Republicans will pose a significant hurdle for Cuomo’s proposed $15 minimum for all workers. Senate Republicans last backed a minimum wage increase in 2013, which will be fully phased-in when it increases to $9 at the end of the year. In May, he dismissed a plan by the state Assembly to increase the wage to $15 by 2018. They died alongside many other heroes.
Advertisement
A ballot measure in the District of Columbia to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour is expected to go before voters next year.
The state’s current minimum wage is $8.75.
The started their journey at the New York State Museum.
“Every working man and woman in the state of New York deserves US$15 an hour”, the governor told the enthusiastic crowd of union members.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration formally approved the proposal Thursday. “We did an event yesterday that he was invited to”, Cuomo said, referring to an event held Thursday in Manhattan where Cuomo, joined by Biden, called for a $15 minimum wage statewide.
And he did a little New York boosterism of his own, mixed with some Cuomo ego stroking.
But other business leaders had a more nuanced view.
Franchise owners, however, say the increase singles them out and gives their mom-and-pop competitors who won’t have to raise wages an unfair advantage.
Maybe Bill de Blasio isn’t the only New Yorker with deep Clinton ties whose support the former secretary of state needs to worry about.
New York – By raising the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 per hour, New York become the first USA state that has agreed to raise the industry’s wages that high. Sixty percent of fast-food workers in New York are enrolled in one or more public assistance programs.
“I wish he had what he had”, Biden said, focusing on a point in the distance, and saying that Mario Cuomo never lost sight of his “north star”. The legislature convenes in January. The minimum wage would increase by almost 70 percent when fully implemented.
“I imagine that would be a hell of a job”, Biden said.
“This is all about bro-gressivism”, the operative said.
Advertisement
Cuomo contended the hike would boost the state’s economy. One Albany insider linked today’s announcement to recent news about the governor’s efforts to lure General Electric to New York from Connecticut. But the positives outweigh any potential negatives, he said. He’s the best governor in the nation, Biden said, a man who’s “never been afraid to say what you mean and act on it”.
