Liberal Party Supports Minimum
Wage Increase
to $7 per hour
The New York State Liberal Party announced today that it is asking
that New York State legislators immediately pass an increase in the
state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 per hour. This request is
supported by the recent Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI)'s report
entitled Raising the Minimum Wage in New York: Helping Working
Families and Improving the State's Economy.
The report reveals the real value of the minimum wage is approaching
its lowest value since the late 1940s. Using constant dollar values,
in 2000 more than 11 percent of New Yorkers earned wages lower than
$7 per hour; nearly three times as many of New Yorkers as in 1979.
The poverty rate among working families has also exploded in the
past two decades, nearly doubling from 6.4 to 12.2 percent. While
twelve states currently have minimum wage higher than the federally
mandated minimum the Empire State is not one of them. New York
State's minimum wage reform lags behind many of its neighbors as
well as states with similar economies. Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and Vermont each can boast a minimum wage of $6.75 per
hour or greater. As of January 1, 2005, both California and
Illinois' minimum wages will be at $6.50 per hour or greater.
The Liberal Party Policy Committee stated that an increase in the
minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 per hour would is the right move for
New York State's working families.This increase would directly
benefit an estimated 691,000 workers, or 8.8 percent of the state
workforce. The FPI report states that an additional 509,000 workers,
whose current salaries are already higher than the proposed $7 per
hour standard but lower than $8, would also likely benefit. The move
would primarily impact young adults, not teenagers as opponents of
the plan argue. More than half of those who would benefit from the
move work full-time, while another 28 percent work between 20 and 34
hours per week. A minimum wage increase would benefit women, people
of color, and immigrants in particular, as each group is represented
disproportionately in the number earning very low wages.
"New York's struggling low-wage workers need a boost," said James
Parrott, FPI's Deputy Director and Chief Economist and one of the
principal authors of the report. "There has been a dramatic rise
over the last 20 years in the portion of New York's workforce paid
very low wages." The state's workforce has not enjoyed a minimum
wage increase since 1997, the second longest gap (exceeded only by
the 1981-90 period) since the Fair Labor Standards Act, which
established the federal minimum wage in 1938.
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