This week Governor Cuomo signed a state budget which includes an increase in New York State’s minimum wage, from $7.25 per hour to $9.00 per hour over three years.  Over 1.5 million workers in New York will see increases in their paychecks totaling over $1 billion in additional earnings.

The Center for Popular Democracy is proud to have been a major partner in the coalition of labor, business, community, faith and policy organizations from across the state which lead this successful campaign. The coalition fought back the New York State Senate’s attempt to exclude tipped workers from the minimum wage increase, and to create a sub-minimum wage for workers under the age of 20.

In the final weeks, the coalition won a commitment from Governor Cuomo to use the Department of Labor “wage board” process to give tipped food service workers – who will not see an automatic increase under the budget deal – a badly-needed raise.

Unfortunately, the budget deal also included the creation of an unwarranted and wasteful tax subsidy to low-wage employers. The campaign will now turn to fighting for the removal of this tax subsidy.

CPD would like to thank the National Employment Law Project, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, SEIU 32BJ, Strong Economy for All, Make the Road New York, as well as Assembly Speaker Silver and Governor Cuomo for their leadership on this important issue.