(NYS) Assembly Passes Labor Legislation Raising State Minimum Wage

NYS Assembly ^ | March 1, 2004 | NYS Assembly

[bc2]

For Immediate Release: March 1, 2004

Assembly Passes Labor Legislation Raising State Minimum Wage

Bill Would Increase Hourly Rate From $5.15 To $7.10

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced the Assembly passed legislation aimed at lifting the minimum wage during the coming years to $7.10 an hour by 2006.

In announcing the legislation at a Capitol news conference earlier today, Silver also released a report, "Rewarding Work: A Fair Minimum Wage." Joined by Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell, Jr. and Labor Committee Chair Susan John, Silver pointed to the report's analysis of the state's current minimum wage and its impact on working families in strongly urging Gov. George Pataki and the Senate to act swiftly in approving this measure.

"There are tens of thousands of New Yorkers who toil and struggle everyday to make ends meet, despite being employed. The state's failure to institute a minimum wage that lifts families out of poverty has only moved those ends further apart," said Silver (D-Manhattan). "Continued failure to address this issue will only exacerbate the challenges New York already faces in areas such as education, health care and unemployment."

"A New York State, full-time, year-round worker in 2003 earned just $10,712 or only 72.3 percent of the annual income needed to keep a family of three out of poverty," said Farrell (D-Manhattan). "The time for action is long overdue. How can we as a state understand that 14.5 percent of all families - and 29.2 percent of female-headed households -- live in poverty, yet fail to act? I join the speaker and Labor Chair John in calling on the Senate and the governor to join us in acting now to institute a decent wage."

"The Assembly made pay-equity legislation its first order of business this year, and now we are continuing our fight for hard-working men and women again with the introduction of the Fair Minimum Wage Act," said John (D-Rochester). "As chair of the Labor Committee, I join with Speaker Silver in standing up for the workers of New York State. A fair minimum wage means that working men and women will be able to provide for their families. This legislation once again proves the Assembly's commitment to all New Yorkers to earn a fair wage for a days work."

Sponsored by Susan John, the minimum wage bill (A.9710) would raise New York's minimum hourly wage incrementally from $5.15 to $7.10 as of January 1, 2006. The initial raise to $6.00 per hour would be effective October 1, 2004. The next increase would be to $6.75 per hour, effective July 1, 2005.

Other provisions of the bill would authorize an employee advocate to file a wage and hour complaint and give the state labor commissioner access to wage and hour records in making a determination of an alleged violation.

Noting that the value of minimum wage has so severely deteriorated that the annual income for a New York State full-time minimum wage worker has not exceeded the federal poverty threshold since 1979, the report details the particular importance of raising the minimum wage for the many hard working women who head single-parent households.

"While women account for less than half of New York State's workforce, they make up more than 60 percent of workers earning less than $7.10 per hour," said Farrell. "This devastating statistic is further compounded by the fact that almost half of those women have children."

"In New York, low-wage workers earning less than $7.10 per hour represent 17.3 percent of all state hourly wage earners. Adults between 20 and 64 years of age comprise 74.7 percent of those earning less than $7.10 per hour and 48.4 percent of these adults work full time," said John.

John said the minimum wage has not been increased since March of 2000, and this provision will raise wages to a level consistent with neighboring states, such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. She added that while 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, currently have a state minimum wage above the federal standard, six of the 12 are in the Northeast region.

"If the New York State minimum wage had been indexed to inflation in 1968, when the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage peaked, it would have climbed to $8.72 in 2003 without any further adjustments to the base rate," John said.

Click here to view the report, "Rewarding Work: A Fair Minimum Wage." http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/comm/WAM/2004MinWage/

[bc2]

you've been added. it's a low-volume ping list.

best regards,

bc2

[jscd3]

Upstate NY will turn into a vast waste land with this legislation. If I owned a business, I'd shut down and retire, or pack up and leave.

I think that you have hit on one of the goals of the legislation. New York state is chock full of people who live in major cities and suburban ring cities who rarely see the rest of the state. Interestingly, these folks support politicians with fairly radical environmental adgendas.

Do you really think that a liberal politico who is sold on "smart growth" - which is just an underhanded way of saying he is in favor of crowding people into cities and turning every possible bit of space into a wilderness area - is concerned about people leaving the vast rural areas of NY becasue of inane economic policy?

Half the state is aready state park or indian reservation. The rest is up for grabs.

Just my opinion, as a former citizen of the state...

[Humidston]

Bag boys?? Heck, I lived on Long Island in 1992-1994 and there were zero bag boys back then. When I asked the manager of a store what the deal was, he told me the unions would force them to pay the kids the exact amount they pay cashiers and they couldn't afford them!
You upstaters have ALL my sympathy - you have to put up with the crap voted in by the liberals.

[Mark]

So, shouldn't the amount for welfare be doubled to make it fair?

[bc2]

"shouldn't the amount for welfare be doubled to make it fair?"

don't give these goons any ideas!!!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Chamber of Commerce send thanks to the NY State Assembly...

[Smber]

I live 20-25 miles southeast of Buffalo, which is an area dominated by public sector unions, lawyers, and the government. It is an economic backwater, to say the least. New York State is one F'd up mess thanks to the above groups. The only way it will change will be to collapse the entire system at once. No amount of nibbling around the edges will correct this mess. (I know this is a dream, but just imagine if everyone got together and stopped paying taxes.)
The city of Buffalo is a microcosm of the state's problems; waste money on social programs and regulate business until it leaves. As an example of waste, in November, 2002, the city of Buffalo installed eight plexi-glass basketball backboards in Delaware Park. I've never seen these in a public park in my life. I estimate the cost to be approximately $750 per backboard; a total waste. Buffalo can't find two nickels to rub together but somehow found the money to piss away on this. Still, they demand more. I could go on and on about situations like these but you get the point.
The individual is a slave to this state but it seems like people just accept their situation. It is really hard to build up momentum to do anything here.

[Humidston]

LOL! Your story reminds me of an article in our local paper on Long Island... They were bragging that the municipality of Riverhead had purchased and installed brand new lamp lights in the area known as "Polish Town" for a mere $44,000.

Of course it was all in the spirit of "Diversity...."

[Lazamataz]

please add me.... :o)

[Lazamataz]

Best regards from Rochester!

How izzit in my old home town?

Last time I was there the Can was nearly empty at rush hour. Pity.

[Lazamataz]

Labor Committee Chair Susan John

Oh, Susan John is still around? Last I heard, this head of the DWI Task Force had been arrested for DWI.

But I guess it only matters when Republicans do it.

[Clemenza]

Correct. There are still NO bagboys in the supermarkets up here.

[Redbob]

To be followed soon by newspaper articles and op-ed pieces decrying the loss of jobs in NY - "Won't somebody DO something? Please, Hillary, pass a law!"

[catfur]

I'd like to edit the following as a post script to the passage of said legislation:

Upstate NY has turned into a vast waste land with this legislation. Those who owned a business, have shut down and retired, or have packed up and have left

C'mon..I live in upstate NY and Welfare is the mimimum wage of choice. Brood sows suck it up big time. Have 3 kids before the age of twenty, get subsidized housing, utilities, food etc.

Of course, we can always hope that the Senate Gov. Pataki will thwart the bill.

[Conservative til I die]

Don't even bother calling or writing. The pussy Republicans won't dare vote this down. No one in liberal NYS wants to look bad voting down a minimum wage increase.

[qam1]

Of course, we can always hope that the Senate Gov. Pataki will thwart the bill.

LOL!

The 38 RINOS in the Senate and Pataki are more liberal than the Democrats in the Assembly. I bet not only will they not stop this they will offer an even more generous hike.

[bc2]

Hey Laz, what's up? I added you to the ping list. Susan John isn't the Chair of the Labor Committee, Guy J. Velella is. I tried to find some articles about John's DWI but I didn't come up with anything right away.

Rochester is OK, there are a few places fighting the smoking ban, a couple even allowing marijuana smoking! LOL only in Rochester, you gotta love it. Civil disobedience at it's finest! :-) Winter sucked this year but all in all it wasn't so bad.

Former republican County Clerk Maggie Brooks beat Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson in a tight race for County Exec this past year, so that's good. Johnson said he won't run again for Mayor but I don't know if the Democrats have lined up a replacement. Luis Perez will probably run against whomever the dems annoint but it will be a sacraficial run. Some think that Johnson will try to win Louise Slaughter's Congressional seat if she gives it up. Hopefully the republicans can field a strong candidate and win the seat. I won't hold my breath.

Kodak keeps laying off more and more folks all the time. It's only a matter of time before I scout Wyoming and New Hampshire out and leave NY.

Let me know if you're planning to come back to town sometime and I'll be sure to buy you a beer.

[catfur]

LOL back at you. Sorry, I left the sarchasm tag off my last line.

[Made In The USA]

Surprised this is happening now, would believe the season for this closer the November elections....

Willing to bet that within 6 months, some lib will be screaming about how it's impossible to feed a family of four on $7.10, that it's not a "living wage", that something must be done...

[adam_az]

Willing to bet that within 6 months, some lib will be screaming about how it's impossible to feed a family of four on $7.10, that it's not a "living wage", that something must be done...

6 months sounds like a good timeframe for the new, higher consumer price level to adjust.