Cuomo Plans to Raise State Worker Pay to $15 an Hour

“This is about basic fairness and basic justice”, he said of the push to raise the minimum wage both in NY State and across the country.

State College demonstrators heard speeches from nursing home workers from Centre County and surrounding areas who said their wages were insufficient for sustaining themselves and their families.

NY Senate’s Republican declined to endorse the $15 minimum wage, saying the issue will be discussed in detail by his conference and predicting “some kind of compromise”. Walkouts were planned for 270 cities nationwide, according to the Service Employees global Union.

Dave Loobie, who works for UPS, joined crowds in Foley Square to show solidarity with their fight. “We lead by example”. Union organizers say about 100 workers in Minneapolis walked off their jobs at about 70 stores. Approximately 9,000 employees are outside of NY City, and 1,000 within NY City.

“I’m open to discussions,”he said”.

“If I thought (raising the) minimum wage would be the best way to help increase their pay, I would be all for it but it isn’t”, he said.

The increase will be phased in the same way as the fast food worker wage increase, fully taking effect in 2021.

The decision to increase wages for public sector workers followed a decision by NY State to set the minimum wage for fast food workers at 15 dollars an hour.

At the rally Tuesday, Sargent told protesters a higher minimum wage is possible if enough supporters turn out to vote in next year’s election. In a statement provided to NBC, McDonald’s said that it respects the rights of people to demonstrate, and that it and its franchisees “support paying our valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace”.

State Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, is pushing a bill in the statehouse that would raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15, although it seems unlikely to gain traction in Republican-dominated Tallahassee. Moreover, the proposal is also hugely supported and heavily promoted by the state’s major labor unions, with ads by the health care workers union SEIU, reports WXXI News.

“There are also other people who have jobs, who risk their lives for us that don’t get the higher pay, and they stick with their low salary”, said Jasmin Barnes, Elizabethtown.