It’s official: the minimum wage for fast-food workers in the state will rise to $15 an hour.
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Governor Andrew Cuomo is upping the ante on Minimum Wage in New York State.
Cuomo said the minimum wage, which amounts to $18,200 a year for a full-time worker, should be more of a living wage. The increase will be done gradually over a span of three years in the city of New York and six years for the rest of the state.
Fast food restaurant owners in the state are reportedly considering mounting a legal challenge against the minimum wage hike.
McMahon says the governor is proposing to elevate the minimum wage to the level of the median wage in many parts of the state, something he believes was not the intention of the original law, meant to regulate entry level jobs.
“Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will bring fairness to 2.2 million working New Yorkers”, said Cuomo, adding that $15 an hour “will be the highest statewide rate in the nation and will herald a new economic contract with America, and it’s about time”. “We have heard and we reject the political argument that has been made that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs-we believe the exact opposite”.
Whatever the case may be, critics warn that a $15 an hour minimum wage in New York City and beyond is not a good approach. Or in Seattle or Los Angeles, two other cities that are boosting their minimum wages to $15 an hour. “It goes far beyond anything anyone has ever seriously proposed before”.
While the conservative “Unshackle Upstate” called the plan “a huge step backwards for the Upstate economy”, the Retail Council of New York State said it sees “value in the Governor’s proposal and look forward to continuing our dialogue with him on this issue”. After being introduced by the governor, Biden reiterated the White House’s support for a federal minimum and praised wage increases in general on the principle that “when we treat people decently, everything goes up”.
Although state lawmakers will not return to Albany until January, the ad – running in the city and key markets upstate – is intended to help “set the agenda” for the 2016 elections, when control of the state Senate will be decided, said a Cuomo campaign source.
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Fast-food workers had pushed for the increase, noting their industry employs more low-wage workers than any other sector of the workforce. The median wage in the Utica and Binghamton areas is between $15 and $16 dollars an hour. “With $15 an hour, I’d say that’s all out of the window, and a lot of businesses are going to have to shut down just because their models are not conducive to paying laborers $15 an hour”. The new minimum wage will affect 116 fast-food chain brands.
