(01/31/12) The leading Democrat in New York's Assembly is pushing to increase the state's minimum wage.
Speaker Sheldon Silver says it's "absurd" to think that anyone can make a living on the current amount, $7.25 an hour. He wants the minimum to go up to $8.50.
Silver had dozens of colleagues from his Democrat-controlled chamber behind him when he announced his bill yesterday.
The speaker says the minimum wage in New York has risen 10 cents in the last six years and increasing it is "a matter of human dignity".
He says no one who works hard and plays by the rules
should be “poor and bereft of hope.
Silver also says the
recommended $8.50 an hour is low enough to prevent any potential job
losses at businesses who say they can’t afford a sudden increase. “It
is a balancing act”, said Silver. “And right now, New York State is out of
balance.”
Under the bill’s provisions,
the new minimum wage would increase by the rate of inflation each year. Silver
says if the state’s minimum wage had been tied to the rate of inflation all
along, it would now be $10.80 per hour.
A spokesman says Gov. Andrew
Cuomo has supported previous proposals to raise the minimum and will review
this one.
The Senate Republican
majority conference says senators will keep promoting policies that make New
York a more business-friendly state.
The state farm Bureau and
Business Council issued a joint press release yesterday expressing "dismay" at Silver’s proposal.
The two business groups say
an increased minimum wage law that would put their members at a distinct competitive
disadvantage.
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