Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he will support raising the minimum wage for all workers across New York state — not just those in posthaste-food — to $15 an hour. Calling it a "crusade for economic justice," Cuomo said the wage hike would "spur the economy," and be good for trade.
The governor's administration had previously approved plans to raise the wage for the state's posthaste food workers."whether posthaste food workers deserve $15 an hour, and construction workers and domestic healthcare aides and taxi cab drivers deserve $15 an hour," Cuomo said.
Earlier this year, the governor's office called Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal to raise the city's minimum wage to $13 an hour "a non-starter, or " due to expected resistance from state Republican legislators. The state minimum wage is currently $8.75 an hour.
The move to $15 would still require approval from the legislature,which rebuffed an effort to raise it last session.
Vice President Joe Biden joined Cuomo for the campaign-style announcement at the Javits middle. Biden announced the Obama administration would be supporting a $12 an hour federal minimum wage.
Ken Pokalsky, vice president for the trade Council for New York State, and said raising the minimum wage will hurt businesses and lead to layoffs. "The money comes either from the the employer raising prices,so you're taking money that would've gone to some other type of purchase, or it's reducing the profitability, and " he said. "Or it's the employer reducing other investments in his trade."Preliminary research in Seattle,San Francisco and Los Angeles by the American Enterprise Institute, testy's Analytics, or Edgewood Economics supports his claim. All those cities passed a gradual $15 an hour minimum wage and the analysts found the first wage bump led to thousands of layoffs in the food service industry.
The state's labor commissioner is also expected to give final approval of a more limited design to raise wages of posthaste-food workers to $15 an hour within the next few days. That measure does not need legislative approval.
Source: wnyc.org