Liberals Continue Push For New York Wage Hikes

Date: May 21, 2015

Governor, NYC Mayor Press Issue Ahead Of 2016 Elections

 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week have continued their anti-business, pro-labor agendas, pushing minimum wage hikes in an effort to rally supporters ahead of 2016 elections. Gov. Cuomo and Democratic state legislators have pushed what the AP calls “a broader increase for all workers making the minimum wage.” The effort has met resistance in the state Senate. The wage board Cuomo summoned earlier this year first met on Wednesday to discuss increases to the state minimum wage for fast food workers, currently $8.75 per hour. Cuomo maintains the wage board gives him a way to implement wage hikes for individual industries without legislative approval.

As the board met, workers from the fast food industry held rallies in Buffalo, Albany, and New York City urging a $15 per hour minimum wage. The governor has “proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.50 statewide and $11.50 in New York City, but the governor has not said whether he would support an increase to $15,” the AP explains. At one of the rallies, former New York City Council speaker and current gubernatorial aide Christine Quinn praised the governor’s efforts to increase wages. Capital New York reports Quinn called his actions a “game changer.” She said the wage board’s meeting “builds on the governor’s commitment around empowering women in New York State to make sure fast food workers get the wage they deserve.” Meanwhile, the New York Times is taking an anti-small business stance, suggesting Cuomo’s wage board hasn’t gone far enough, and said he needs to establish “a separate higher minimum wage of $15 an hour for New York City” and implement “a state minimum wage that is higher than the proposal for $10.50 an hour currently on the table.”

As Cuomo continued pushing his liberal agenda in the state capitol, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio continued his focus of positioning himself as a national liberal spokesman. Wednesday he touted Los Angeles’ move to approve a $15 minimum wage and said New York’s current $9 per hour wage is below what “you could live on,” the New York Post reports. The New York Daily News notes De Blasio called Los Angeles “another example of a city that’s doing the right thing, lifting people up by providing a wage on which they can live. We need Albany to catch up with the times and raise the wage.”

What Happens Next

The wage board will continue to hold meetings, several of which will solicit public input. The board then plans to issue proposals for wage increases, which the Commissioner of Labor would have 45 days to consider and choose whether or not to implement.

What This Means For Small Businesses

New York has a long tradition of being a liberal stronghold and anti-small business state. However, new measures by Gov. Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio further endanger the business climate by threatening to increase labor costs. As Harry Siegel pointed out in the New York Daily News, Cuomo’s plan could have the effect of “pricing out small owners already struggling to compete with big bank branches and pharmacy chains for ever-more expensive rents.”

Additional Reading

The AP notes the New York State wage board’s first meeting. NFIB previously described the wage board’s process.

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