Perales Claims Increase Will Ultimately Boost State's Economy
New
York Secretary of State Cesar Perales has been conducting a “make the case for
a higher minimum wage” tour across upstate New York in an effort to sell
business people on Gov Andrew Cuomo’s (D) plan for another increase to the
state’s minimum wage. In meetings with business owners last week, Perales cast
increasing the wage as a moral imperative and described the current minimum
wage as unlivable.
Perales argued that while employers say an increase in the minimum wage may
cause them to reduce the number of workers they employ, “over the long run it’s
a tremendous boost to the economy,” because businesses will see the increase
returned to them through higher consumer spending. Perales said that minimum
wage earners “don’t invest in the stock market, they spend it on immediate
need. Once they’re spending more money, you’ve got businesses doing better.
Invariably, it lifts the economy.”
What This Means For Small Business.
Under a law signed by Cuomo in 2013,
New York’s current minimum wage is $8.75 per hour and is set to rise to $9 per
hour on Dec. 31. However, Cuomo argues the current minimum wage is not enough
for workers to sustain themselves and their families and has proposed
increasing it to $10.50 by the end of 2016. Democrats in the state Assembly
have proposed increasing the wage even further, to $12.60 an hour by 2019
upstate, and $15 in New York City, Westchester County, and Long Island. Cuomo
has rejected the Democrats’ proposal as too high.
Any proposal to raise the minimum wage will have to get past the state Senate,
which is controlled by Republicans that will likely not support any such
increase. Likewise, members of New York’s business community have expressed
their opposition to another increase, particularly until the 2013 increase is
fully implemented and its effects can be gauged.
Additional Reading.
Among other media outlets, the AP and the Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle report
on Perales’ meetings with business owners, as do the websites of Time Warner Cable News and WXXI-TV. The New York Daily News and the Gotham (NY) Gazette report on Cuomo’s comments
about the proposal from Assembly Democrats.
