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.

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Click here to view the report, "Rewarding Work: A Fair Minimum Wage."