In response to the statement from Senate Majority Dean Skelos that a minimum wage increase will not be a part of the final state budget, workers and allies across the state called on Assembly Speaker Heastie and Governor Cuomo to stay the course and fight for working New Yorkers. They criticized Senator Skelos for refusing to listen to the needs of working New Yorkers and called on Governor Cuomo to use his political capital to ensure that a minimum wage increase, with a clear path to $15/hour (which the Assembly included in its budget proposal), be included in the budget deal:
Mauricio Jiménez, member of the Queens workers committee and Board of Directors at Make the Road New York, said, “I’ll be very disillusioned if the minimum wage is not included in the budget. It’s enormously disappointing that Senate leader Dean Skelos is not taking the needs of workers like me into consideration in these negotiations. Our cost of living keeps going up, but our wages do not. Meanwhile, if a minimum wage increase with a clear path to $15 per hour is not in the final budget, it will show us that the governor is not pushing enough so that all workers have fair wages here in New York.”
Alexsandra Candelaria, a McDonald’s employee in Rochester, who also works two other minimum wage jobs, said, “Increasing the minimum wage is not a joke. It means the difference between me and my family surviving or not. No one should play political games with our lives.”
Hector Figueroa, 32BJ President said, “The people of New York have been calling for a higher minimum wage and Senator Skelos and the rest of the Senate shouldn’t ignore their voices in the final days of budget negotiations. Governor Cuomo and the Assembly should keep standing on the side of the hard-working men and women who are counting on our leaders in Albany to raise the wage—it’s the right thing to do for workers and for our state.”
Karen Scharff, Working Families Party Co-chair, stated: “The Assembly and Governor Cuomo owe it to New York’s working families to insist that the Senate put the minimum wage into the budget. Now is the time for Albany to remember who it’s here to serve: not just hedge fund billionaires, but also three million low-wage workers across the state and their families.”
Jessica Wisneski, Legislative and Campaigns Director of Citizen Action of New York, affirmed: “It would be complete negligence for the Senate Republicans to leave 3 million hard working New Yorkers in poverty by excluding the minimum wage increase from the final budget. Governor Cuomo and Speaker Heastie must fight until they win.
James Parrott, Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said, “Is Albany listening (or thinking)? Local economies across the state need the boost a minimum wage hike can provide. It helps workers, children in low-income families, and local businesses. It’s also a plus for government budgets with savings on public assistance benefits, greater tax collections, and reduced subsidies to low-wage employers.”
Paul Sonn, National Employment Law Project general counsel said, “New York can’t afford to let Senator Skelos and the Senate Republicans deny working families the raise they badly need. Governor Cuomo and the Assembly need to keep fighting – and if Senator Skelos continues to be a roadblock, Governor Cuomo should use his executive wage order powers to break the gridlock and implement his minimum wage package.”
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