ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The top Democrat in New York's Legislature began pushing legislation Monday to boost the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour and then link future increases to the inflation rate.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, joined by dozens of colleagues from his chamber controlled by Democrats, said census data show nearly half of the U.S. population has fallen into poverty or joined the ranks of the working poor. He said New York's minimum wage has risen 10 cents in the last six years, it is lower here than in 18 other states, and increasing it is "a matter of human dignity."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has supported previous proposals to raise the minimum and his office will review this one through the legislative session, spokesman Matthew Wing said Monday
Scott Reif, spokesman for Republicans who control the Senate, said the Senate GOP would "continue to promote policies that encourage job growth and make New York a more business-friendly state, just as we did last year partnering with Governor Cuomo."
The New York Farm Bureau and the state Business Council said raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses, farms and nonprofits that are struggling to meet payrolls now. Farm Bureau President Dean Norton called it "a stealth tax."
The Fiscal Policy Institute, a research nonprofit whose aim is "a strong economy in which prosperity is broadly shared," said raising the minimum wage would help 1.6 million workers, mainly in retailing, food services and local service businesses, that don't compete with businesses in other states. The institute said it would actually create 25,000 jobs since the money would be quickly spent and pumped back into local economies.
The advocacy group Hunger Action Network said the $8.50 an hour rate would be too low to address the gulf in income inequality and should be $10, less than what it would be if the old $1.50 minimum wage from 40 years ago had been adjusted along with inflation.
For workers Monday, it was more than a theoretical debate.
Hippolyte Lohaka, laid-off from his job as a lecturer at Baylor College in Texas two years ago and looking for similar work in Buffalo, meanwhile greets shoppers and wrangles carts at Sam's Club. He makes about $8 an hour. It's not enough to make ends meet. He splits expenses with a roommate.
Raising the minimum wage "would be very helpful," he said at the Buffalo Employment and Training Center in Buffalo, where he and other job-seekers sat at computers updating resumes and scouring job sites. "There are not a lot of jobs. For the economy, that would be a partial solution," he said.
Loretta Glover, 63, of Mount Vernon, said she made about $26 an hour as a salesperson, counting commission and bonuses, before she was laid off by Time Warner Cable in 2008. Now she makes $7.25 an hour working part-time to supplement her Social Security, while taking college courses in hopes of getting a better job. She canceled her cable TV to save money.
"It's very hard to pay my bills at $7.25," Glover said. "I have to get food stamps, and a subsidy to pay my rent."
Glover wants to see the minimum raised to $10 an hour. "That way, I could buy new clothes when mine get worn out. I wouldn't have to be subsidized to pay my rent. Maybe scratch together enough to take a trip now and then," she said. "I can't imagine someone with children living on this."
At a corner Korean-owned deli on Manhattan's West Side, 18-year-old Mexican immigrant Jaime Gallindo smiled as he appeared from a back room where he earns $7.80 helping prepare the salad bar:
"If I made $8.50, I could save some money!" he said in Spanish. Most of his salary goes to cover monthly rent of $600 for one room in someone's apartment. "I save nothing now."
But an increase in the minimum wage for a few of his lowest-paid employees would put a squeeze on deli owner Jay Kim, who says he's barely keeping the business open. "The economy is bad, and I can't pay more because it's almost impossible to keep this place now," he said, glancing around the neatly stacked shelves and deli bar that's often crowded at lunchtime.
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Associated Press writers Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, Mary Esch in Albany and Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report.
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