Several Democratic New York state lawmakers, unions, and worker advocates on Thursday pushed back on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to tie the minimum wage to inflation, saying the proposal is inadequate for struggling low-income workers and the rate should be eventually boosted by to over $21per hour statewide.
Business groups conversely say they’re against any raise while employers continue to recover from the pandemic. New York’s minimum wage downstate is $15 per hour and it’s $14.20 for upstate workers.
The minimum wage fight will test the moderate Democrat governor’s ability to push her own priorities while working with an increasingly progressive arm of the legislature and a veto-proof Democratic supermajority in both houses. Last month, Hochul was dealt a public blow after a key Senate committee rejected her nominee to head the state’s highest court. New York lawmakers also are attempting to keep up with similar wage efforts in other progressive states.
“There’s no middle ground,” state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D), who chairs the chamber’s labor committee, told reporters at a Thursday news conference.
“There is only one way that we can help working families at this moment,” she said, adding that Hochul’s proposal only equates to an extra $13 a week. “The state should not be in the business of codifying poverty wages.”
Hochul’s budget proposal released Wednesday would...
ALOR GAJAH: An army major claimed trial at the Ayer Kerod Sessions Court here today to five charges of submitting false claims involving maintenance work and non-existent raw material supplies wor...