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NY passes $15 minimum wage for food workers

Workers in the quick service restaurant industry in New York state will earn a minimum wage of $15, a raise that will be phased in over three years.

September 11, 2015

New York state will raise the minimum wage for quick service restaurant workers to $15 an hour, reports msnbc.com. The raise will be implemented over over three years and is the first time any state has set the minimum that high.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration formally approved the increase Thursday, a move that the Democratic governor announced at a labor rally with Vice President Joe Biden, the Associated Press reported. Cuomo said he would work to pass legislation setting a $15 minimum for all industries, a promise that comes as more and more cities around the country move toward a $15 minimum wage.

"Every working man and woman in the state of New York deserves $15 an hour," the governor told the crowd of union members, reported the AP. "We’re not going to stop until we get it done."

Biden predicted the $15 wage for fast-food workers would galvanize efforts across the country.

"You’re going to make every single governor in every single state in America look at themselves," he said at the rally in New York City, according to the article. "It’s going to have a profound impact."

He said he and President Barack Obama remain committed to raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour.

The wage increase for fast-food workers in New York will be phased in over three years in New York City and over six years elsewhere in the state, the article stated. It will apply to some 200,000 employees at large chain restaurants.

Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and the California cities of Oakland and Berkeley have approved phased-in increases that eventually will take their minimum wage to $15 an hour, or about $31,200 a year, the AP reported.

Using a tactic that allowed the governor to circumvent the Legislature, where the Republican-led Senate has blocked big increases in recent years, New York’s increase was recommended by an unelected Wage Board created by Cuomo. The current $8.75 minimum is already set to rise to $9 at year’s end under a law passed by lawmakers in 2013, the article stated.

The AP also reported that Republicans held a hearing Thursday to discuss the process behind the fast-food wage increase, which some restaurant owners have said they may challenge in court.

Noting that their industry employs more low-wage workers than any other sector of the workforce, quick service food workers had fought for the increase. They said that unlike landscaping companies or child care services, the fast-food business is dominated by multinational companies with billion-dollar profits, the article stated.

According to the AP. franchise owners, however, said the increase singles them out and gives an unfair advantage to "mom-and-pop" competitors that won’t have to raise wages.

Pat Pipino, owner of a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in Saratoga Springs, told the AP some franchise owners could be forced out of business by the increase. He predicted that others may be forced to raise prices or cut positions to absorb the higher labor costs.

"By executive fiat, with the stroke of a pen, our financial model goes to pot," he said in a statement to the AP.

Opposition by business groups and Senate Republicans will pose a significant hurdle for Cuomo’s proposed $15 minimum for all workers, the article stated.

"Raising the wage floor in New York that far that fast could lead to unintended consequences such as severe job losses and negatively impact many businesses who are already struggling just to keep their heads above water," Republican Senate Leader John Flanagan of Long Island said in a statement to the AP.

Democrats in the state Assembly and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have long supported a $15 minimum. On Thursday, de Blasio welcomed Cuomo’s call for a higher minimum wage and said he would "urge Albany to act quickly," according to the article.