Time is running short on the legislative session, but advocates on June 17 are set to make one last pitch for a bill that would allow localities like New York City to set their own minimum wage rates above the state floor.
Fast food workers and labor and community groups will descend on the Capitol en masse to call for the bill’s passage before the Legislature wraps up on June 19…
The “Capitol Takeover” will be a seminal moment for driving #RaiseUpNY home as the highest-impact policy Albany can pass this session to reduce inequality, boost regional economies, and set realistic livable, wages for 3 million New Yorkers – most of whom are working mothers and fathers struggling to raise their children on wages that are too low,” said one source.
The effort will involve members of SEIU, 32BJ, SEIU 1199, the Working Families Party , Strong Economy for All, Make the Road New York, and New York Communities for Change, United New York and Citizen Action, organizers say.
The bill’s chances of being brought to the floor before session ends next week are low. Gov. Cuomo and Senate leadership have previously said they already addressed the minimum wage by agreeing to phase in a hike to $9 an hour. Cuomo had argued that allowing communities to set their own differing rates would pit locality against locality.
But more recently, as part of an endorsement deal with the Working Families Party, the governor said he supports raising the state minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and guaranteeing future hikes by tying them to inflation. He also said he now supports giving localities the localities with higher costs of living the power to raise their rates a set percentage determined by a state-sanctioned formula.