Many New Yorkers are getting a raise starting today. Overall Minimum Wage jumps…with an even higher boost for fast-food workers. The issue is likely to get more attention this year.
Minimum wage was scheduled to go up to $9.00 dollars-an-hour already for anyone…part of a three-step raise that started in 2013. Fast Food workers get a jump to $9.75 upstate and $10.50 in New York City as the first step toward a $15.00-dollar-an-hour minimum approved by the state wage board earlier this year. A boost to that level for other workers is about to launch on two fronts. Human Services CouncilDirector Allison Sesso is ready to ride the momentum of the fast-food workers for other professions.
"I do hope that there is a tide turning and that there's more conversation about this and more of a recognition of a need to increase the floor. The fast-food workers really led the way, and we're following straight behind them."
More than 200,000 people work in day-care centers, senior centers, homeless shelters and other service providers in the state. More than two-thirds have some college education but Sesso says half are paid less than fifteen dollars an hour and almost a third make less than ten-fifty.
"The work is not valued the same as, say, work in a financial institution, which has traditionally been male-led work, and I think that that is part of the reason why this work doesn't pay as well."
REPORT: "A FAIR WAGE FOR HUMAN SERVICES WORKERS"
Governor Cuomo and others, including the Working Families and Green Parties, are also pushing for a statewide 15 dollar minimum wage law.