New York City has one of the highest cost of living ratios in the country and thus peoples pay checks tend to be spread around quite thin if you are working a min wage job. Many folks work between one - three jobs in order to just get by while still having to rely on public assistance. Over the course of the last two weeks NYC has begun to push for a higher min wage - spear headed by NYC major Bill Deblasio. Deblasio recently earned the ire of many NYC liberals by backing the third way conservative republican (DINO) Andrew Cuomo. This appears to be a step in the right direction as he has thus far curtailed Stop and Frisk and has been scaling back his support for charter schools.
While 13.13 is not 15$ that many fast food workers have been advocating for - it is comparatively better than the paltry 10.10 that President Obama has offered up as a compromise. The fact that the debate has now started at 13.13 is evidence that when you start at a higher rate such as 15 - then the powers that be are willing to compromise by going slightly lower - When the debate started at 10.10 - republicans countered with 8.50. See how that works?
From the Gothamist
Seattle just raised their minimum wage to $15/hour, the highest in the country, and San Francisco is poised to do the same. The minimum wage is $10.50/hour in Vermont, $10.10 in Connecticut, and Washington, D.C.'s will be $11.50 by 2016. Meanwhile, New York's $8/hour ($9 by 2016) continues to be the lowest of any major city, a fact noted by Comptroller Scott Stringer, who just released a report [PDF] detailing the effects of raising the minimum wage in the city to $13.13/hour: 1.2 million New Yorkers would receive an extra $100/week.
"A minimum wage of $13.13 is likely to benefit New York City’s working poor substantially," the report reads. The Comptroller's office arrived at $13.13 because it would be the largest allowable under a minimum wage bill currently working through Albany. The bill would raise the state minimum wage to $10.10/hour by the end of 2015, and allow municipalities to raise it further by 30%.
Cuomo claims to support the bill, yet Republicans in the State Senate do not. Time is running out; this year's session ends on Thursday.
Stringer's brief report dismisses concerns that raising the minimum wage would hurt employment with a study from 2010 [PDF]. "Businesses adjust costs through some combination of higher prices, lower profits and increased efficiency," the report reads, adding that people tend to spend more money when they earn more of it, thereby helping businesses in the process.
Bold by the diarist.
Of course the republicans in the Senate do not support this. That makes the election of Republican (Wall Street (Dino) Andrew Coumo even more egregious and the election against the traitorous dems for control of the senate even more important. We can't allow these people to stop the progress that working people need and deserve.
Workers are rallying in Albany and all across the state to support this bill that will help prevent tragedies like Maria Fernandes who died napping in her car between working three jobs in NJ.
When we say this is a living wage - literally it can be a choice between working ones self to death and being able to comfortably support a family. The coming months are going to be difficult as we here the same baseless attacks on workers coming from republicans. This is an effort this site can get behind and the needs to be a clarion call. If we can't have 21 dollars an hour now (what the real min wage should be if adjusted for productivity and inflation) - and we can't have 15 dollars an hour now (what fast food workers and home health care workers need and deserve now) then we should at least be able to get 13.13 an hour.
That is change I can believe in. Let's lead the way NYC.