Governor, AG, NYC Mayor Separately Call For Increases
Several powerful elected officials are calling for increases to New York’s minimum wage, including the Governor, Attorney General, and New York City Mayor. Despite the state legislature rejecting his call for a minimum wage increase in the recently-passed budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) says increasing the wage is a “top priority.” The Governor is facing pressure from the left to step up advocacy for higher wages. He still has to deal with a quizzical Senate led by Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) criticized the varying efforts to increase the minimum wage, saying, “The issue is where do they come up with these numbers? Somebody says $10.50. Then somebody says $13, then de Blasio says $15. It’s like a bidding war. ‘How high can I go without a real thought process.’”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News claiming that the Administration of Gov. Cuomo can unilaterally hike the state’s minimum wage. On Wednesday, Schneiderman marched with protestors as part of the SEIU’s Fight for $15 rally where the state’s top law enforcement officer gave a speech supporting their calls for a drastic increase to the state’s minimum wage. Schneiderman previously sided with lawmakers trying to boost the minimum to $13 per hour. He said he wants to use his position to correct what he called, “a systematic shifting of the wealth away from the working families that used to be the bedrock of America.” New York’s minimum wage of $8.75 per hour is scheduled for an automatic increase to $9 at the end of 2015.
At the same time, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) barnstormed across the Midwest in an effort to drum up support for his progressive causes. In addition to calling for an increase to the minimum wage, the Mayor used a speech at the University of Nebraska in Omaha to call for tax increases on high earners and mandatory paid sick leave for businesses.
What Happens Next
Schneiderman’s call for increasing the minimum wage through administrative fiat is a startling development in the longstanding debate. Article 19 of New York Code gives the Commissioner of Labor the power to summon a “Wage Board” to investigate if certain groups of workers “are receiving wages insufficient to provide adequate maintenance and to protect their health.” Following the report of a Wage Board, the Commissioner has 45 days to solicit public opinion and decide whether or not to accept its suggestions, in which case the salary floor would have the effect of law. Wage Boards have been used to increase minimum wages for small subsets of the workforce, but they have not been used to increase the overall minimum wage, and it is not immediately clear if such a broad move would withstand judicial scrutiny.
What It Means For Small Business
A $15 per hour minimum wage would be disastrous for owners of independent businesses across the five boroughs. Small businesses in the New York City area are being taken for granted by lawmakers who treat them as bottomless piles of money. A new report by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who supports a minimum wage increase, concludes that a $15 per hour wage would increase worker salaries by $10 billion per year, with $250 million entering the city’s coffers from increased taxes. Those billions of dollars would come straight out of businesses’ bottom lines, forcing cuts to employee hours and a reduction in overall employment. This would disproportionately hurt the exact people supporters want to help, with the added effect of crippling the community-owned small businesses that invest in local economies.
Additional Reading
Other news media covering New York minimum wage proposals include the Wall Street Journal, another article by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Yahoo! Finance, and Capital New York.
