New York employers are just weeks away from paying 25 cents more per hour to their minimum-wage employees. Starting December 31, the statewide minimum hourly rate will jump from $8.25 to $9.
But $15 is still the number of the moment—one that could cost New York up to 588,800 jobs if implemented, according to a new study. In November, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
An analysis of federal data by the Albany-based think tank Empire Center for Public Policy estimates that boosting the hourly minimum wage to $15 could cut 200,000 to 588,800 jobs from New York, particularly in upstate regions.
“Enacting the biggest increase ever in New York’s minimum wage would benefit some low-income workers at the expense of others,” wrote Empire Center President E.J. McMahon.
These findings contradict Gov. Cuomo’s claim that a $15 minimum wage would help, not hurt, New York’s economy. Cuomo’s proposal to reach this rate for all industries by 2021 parallels the state labor commissioner’s order to do the same for fast-food workers by 2018. About 2.2 million workers would be affected by a statewide $15 wage, “many of whom have been forced to live in poverty for too long,” Cuomo said.
In reality, that may not be the case. Empire Center researchers found that less than 7 percent of the earnings created by a statewide $15 law would actually go to impoverished households.
The vast majority of businesses with low-wage workers have low profit margins, according to the study, and layoffs are a likely consequence of increased wages. Small businesses can’t absorb the costs the way that larger corporations can.
“Politicians have absolutely no understanding of what it takes to run a small- or medium-sized business,” said NFIB member Peter H. Elitzer, owner of Peter Harris Clothes in Latham, N.Y.
Elitzer said each of his 600 employees makes more than $9, “but if the minimum wage goes up to $15 an hour, everybody from a store manager on down is going to have to be paid more money.”
Small retail businesses cannot raise prices to cover wage increases without losing customers, he added. “If you take one of your single largest components in terms of your expenses and increase it 50 percent, you can’t make ends meet.”
