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| Mayor Bill de Blasio's expanded living wage law will mean more income for minimum wage workers in NYC. Image: lev radin / Shutterstock.com |
Mayor
Bill de Blasio signed an executive order on Tuesday, September 30, that
will dramatically expand New York City’s living wage law. Thousands of previously exempt workers will
now be covered, and the hourly wage will be raised from $11.90 to $13.13 for
workers not receiving benefits. Workers
receiving benefits will see their wages increase from $10.30 to $11.50 an hour.
The order is part of a broader move to increase
minimum wage across the state. Should de
Blasio succeed, city workers could be earning as much as $15 an hour by
2019. However, he is likely to face
opposition in Albany, where previous attempts to increase wages at the local
level went nowhere during the state legislature’s last session. Debates are scheduled to continue next year.
The original living wage law, passed in in 2012, was
a compromise deal that applied to developers getting more than $1 million in
city subsidies. It was seen as
problematic because it didn’t include tenants, which meant that retail stores
in these buildings didn’t have to pay a living wage to their workers. In addition, it only affected about 1,200
jobs.
The original law also specifically excluded part of
the Hudson Yards development on the Far West Side, which will be covered under
the new order.
“I am
thrilled by this,” said Stuart
Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.
“Extending the living wage to cover tenants in buildings is crucial. It’s a
tool for attacking income inequality in the city. I think for each family who
is affected, this is a life-changing event.”
The
administration estimated that 18,000 workers would be covered over the next
five years--about 70% of all the jobs at businesses receiving new financial
assistance from the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Some
exemptions still apply: Businesses with
a gross income below $3 million, housing projects with more than 75% affordable
units, and manufacturers are not affected by the new law.
In
general, however, supporters hope the law will diminish the growing divide
between rich and poor.
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