Food employees could be approved for minimum wage increase this year

Supporters of the higher minimum wage say that, even in lower-cost upstate New York, is barely enough to support a family and would reduce those workers’ reliance on public assistance programs. New York City fast-food restaurants have a faster increase schedule, with the $15 wage taking effect December. 31, 2018. New York state plans to phase in a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers over the next few years.

For instance, a national $15 minimum wage equates to about $17.08 worth of purchasing power in Macon, Ga., but only .26 in New York City, Pew researchers.

The board added, “We can not ignore the savings to taxpayers that will accrue by increasing the minimum wage as workers become less reliant on public assistance”.

The wage board also identified at least 137 chains, each with 30 or more locations across the country, that would be impacted by its recommendation if it is implemented by the state’s acting labor commissioner.

The trio were appointed in May at the behest of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo after he didn’t persuade the Republican majority in the State Senate to approve another across-the-board increase in the state minimum wage, which is scheduled to climb to $9 at year’s end.

And it underscores an important part of national minimum wage policy that doesn’t often get discussed. “What you can do in L.A. or in New York may not work in other places”.

Like some miraculously bipartisan presidential hopeful, the $15 minimum wage is on a hugely popular, non-stop tour of America.

Or, to put it another way: Even if you think a $15 minimum makes sense as a way to combat the ungodly cost of life in the Bay Area, there’s no reason to impose it on Appalachia. Since that won’t happen upstate until 2021, I adjusted the projected $15 minimum wage for 2 percent annual inflation, and then factored in the differences in purchasing power from one metro area to another.

To calculate the relative purchasing power of a $15 federal minimum wage, Pew used data on “regional price parities”, or RPPs, for 381 metropolitan statistical areas.

The picture is similar to one BEA data painted recently, which showed the value of state-level minimum wages.

The most expensive city in the U.S., in terms of purchasing power, is Honolulu, Hawaii.

Figuring out purchase power and RPPs can help out visualize what a higher minimum wage rate means.