New York City’s Mayor Calls For The Highest Minimum Wage In The Country

[KamaAina]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/04/3619010/new-york-city-15-minimum-wage/

In his State of the City Address on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called for a minimum wage increase that would rise to $15 an hour by 2019.

While de Blasio took office promising to push for a change in state law that would allow the city to set its own minimum wage, he laid out concrete steps for how he would like to see the wage raised. In his address, he called to raise it to $13 an hour in 2016 and then increase automatically with inflation after that, eventually bringing the minimum wage to the $15 level. He said such indexing is important because “it means that hardworking New Yorkers won’t have to wait on new action from Albany just to keep pace with inflation.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has proposed a different plan. In January, he put forth a proposal that would raise the city’s minimum wage to $11.50 an hour by the end of 2016 and the rest of the state to $10.50. De Blasio pushed back at that plan in his speech, saying, “The current wage proposal simply doesn’t do enough to help New York City.” State lawmakers increased the minimum wage last year so that it will rise to $9 an hour by 2016.

De Blasio’s call for a $15 wage comes after city lawmakers introduced legislation last year that would increase the minimum wage at chain stores with sales of $50 million or more to that level. It also comes after the city has been home a number of strikes by fast food workers demanding at least $15 an hour, including the original one-day strike two years ago. Those workers and their Fight for 15 campaign have put that wage level on the agenda, and since then Seattle has adopted a $15 wage and it’s been proposed in other cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago.

[JaneyVee]

1. Now we're talking! KNR!

[SummerSnow]

2. excellent

[AtomicKitten]

3. SF voters beat him to it: $15/hr by 2018.

SF voters passed PropJ last November.

http://sfgsa.org/index.aspx?page=411

[shenmue]

4. Yes!

[pnwmom]

5. Good. They're finally catching up to Seattle and San Francisco. n/t

[BobbyBoring]

6. Sounds good but......

Six bills a week in NY doesn't go very far.

[brooklynite]

7. UNREC: A throwaway promise he knows he can't deliver...

...just like every politician who calls for restoration of the commuter tax after 25 years. City tax policy is determined by the State Legislature, half of which is controlled by the Republicans. It'll never happen and he knows it.

Pandering is a political art. Lazy pandering is annoying.

[KamaAina]

8. The minimum wage is tax policy?

[brooklynite]

9. Almost any financial decision needs to be run through Albany.

[KamaAina]

10. That's bizarre.

I lived in NYC for several years and never knew that.

That's almost as big a pickle as Detroit was in under the emergency manager!

[brooklynite]

11. This is why the rent regulation battles always take place at the State level

[KamaAina]

12. How on Earth did this come about?

It almost sounds like NYC needs home rule, like DC got (from oversight by Congress!) back in the '70s.

[brooklynite]

13. It HAS Home Rule...

...but Home Rule means "those powers delegated to it by the State".

[KamaAina]

14. Next question: Is this true of other cities like Buffalo, Syracuse, etc.?

Or could it have had something to do with the consolidation of 1898?

[brooklynite]

16. NYS Municipal Home Rule Law applies to all local governments.

1. In addition to powers granted in the constitution, the statute of local governments or in any other law, (i) every local government shall have power to adopt and amend local laws not inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution or not inconsistent with any general law relating to its property, affairs or government and, (ii) every local government, as provided in this chapter, shall have power to adopt and amend local laws not inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution or not inconsistent with any general law, relating to the following subject.....

A general law being any law the State chooses to enact.

[SunSeeker]

21. I guess that all depends on what is considered "inconsistent ."

I mean, if the minimum wage is like federal clean air standards, where states can require cleaner air than federal standards and still be consistent with the Clean Air Act, why would a City setting a higher minimum wage than the state minimum wage be inconsistent with the state law? Both pursue the same goals: increased pay for low wage workers.

[CreekDog]

17. so you pivoted from criticizing Alan Grayson to criticizing DeBlasio

And you've posted a falsehood about his promise, which in fact he has delivered on:

Raising the minimum wage and expanding paid sick leave. de Blasio has called for a change to the minimum wage in New York and wants to ask the state capitol of Albany to allow New York City to determine its own minimum wage, instead of hewing to the state’s overall wage laws. He also wants to close loopholes left open in the city’s paid sick leave laws. Currently, the law only gives paid sick leave to employees of companies with over 15 workers, leaving out over 300,000 workers.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/06/2897781/progressive-york-mayor/

he promised to push for this and he is delivering on that promise.

for some reason, you seem to be going after liberal politicians on DU. not sure why, but i think a more admirable way to do it is to say that you're to the right of them and that's why you disagree with their actions.

as opposed to sneaky ways of attacking their character (suggesting they are dishonest, they are greedy [for fundraising], etc.), which this post and others do.

[brooklynite]

18. I strongly support increasing the minimum wage...

...and if you could get $15 passed, that would be great. He can't (he and the Governor can't even work together on a snow storm) and he knows it.

My issue isn't with policies (point to a policy of Grayson's I've objected to), its pandering and pointless money-grubbing.

[cstanleytech]

19. My main issue though is the fact that its essentially worthless in the long term

unless it includes something that will automatically cause it to raise that doesnt require a politician to say "aye" to and the same thing goes for raising the federal minimum wage, we need something in place or some agency that can raise it when its needed in a timely manner because the politicians sure as hell wont.

[moondust]

15. Why isn't minimum wage

indexed to cost of living by local economy? That would keep NYC at or near the very top where it belongs without relying on politicians to change it.

[quakerboy]

20. Why is NYC minimum wage run by the state?

Is that common? Seems like a number of cities have passed minimum wage laws of their own, so I would have assumed that to be uncommon.

[aquart]

22. YES!!!!

Thank you, Mayor DiBlasio, for taking good care of my city since I've been gone.