New York City to Increase Public Workers Minimum Wage to $15

The unilateral raises – which climb each year from as low as $11.50 to $15 per hour in 2018 – cover 20,000 city workers and 30,000 workers at nonprofits with city contracts.

Another study says raising NY state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour would increment pay for a large number of laborers by an aggregate of $15 billion and have the best effect on ladies and minorities in the workforce.

It will cost approximately $238 million to implement the wage increase through to fiscal year 2020.

The pledge affects about 50,000 city employees who are presently making as little as $11.50 per hour. A day later, Mayor de Blasio announced a similar raise for city employees. Andrew Cuomo said he was planning to increase the minimum wage to $15 in a step by step manner for many state university workers.

“The issue of income inequality is finally being discussed across the country – a lot of us have been talking about it for years”.

The Republican-led Senate Labor Committee has just started a public hearing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s push for a phased-in $15/hour minimum wage and several dozen supporters including members of labor as well as religious groups rallied outside the legislative hearing room to express their support. In November 2015, Cuomo passed a $15 salary base for government employees, and for employees of state universities in an announcement made on Monday.

Meanwhile, President Obama is set to address the Congress again on his final State of the Nation speech to raise the national minimum wage, which has been at $7.25 in the past six years.