Siena Poll: Partisan Divide on NYS Minimum Wage Hike

The wage is now $8.75 and is set to rise to $9 at year’s end.

According to a Siena College poll released Thursday, 59 percent of state residents back Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call to raise the wage to $15.

Astorino says if the state had a better business climate, there would be more high paying jobs and no one would have to argue about raising the minimum wage.

Hector Figueroa, the president of 32BJ SEIU, the building workers’ union, argued the popularity of the minimum wage across demographic and ideological lines will force Senate Republicans to back an increase to $15 an hour-especially since Democratic candidates plan to run on the issue.

More than three-quarters of Democrats support the increase, while almost two-thirds of Republicans oppose it, Greenberg said; independents oppose it, 52 percent to 45 percent.

New York’s new $15 wage for fast-food workers will be phased in over three years in New York City and over six elsewhere in the state.

Other Democrats wonder what will be traded for a potential wage increase.

“There is strong overall support from voters for the governor’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15, however, there are wide partisan and geographic differences”, Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a statement.

Only 38% of voters agreed with opponents’ argument that it would hurt job creation and harm businesses.

The other noteworthy favorable-unfavorable numbers are those of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, both of whom ascended to power in the last legislative session.

But Cuomo cited growing momentum for a $15 minimum, and said the time to act is now.

“The government has a marvelous way of exempting itself from something like this”, Schramm said, since most students who work in Food Services are funded through federal work-study, he added.

Michael McKee of the Tenants Political Action Committee was one of the first to say it right out loud. “Instead, he squandered millions on a fake party, and left millions more in his campaign account as New York Democrats in the legislature and in Congress withered on the vine”.

“Nearly three-quarters of New York city voters support the increase, as do 56 percent of downstate suburbanites – however, upstaters are almost evenly divided”, Greenberg said. That might take awhile, but we can start right now.