Hundreds converge on the State Capitol to call for passage of a minimum wage that meets families’ basic needs
Albany, NY – On the same day that Republican State Senators conferenced in the State Capitol on their 2016 legislative agenda, hundreds of people called on them to pass a statewide $15 minimum wage.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the Capital Region joined 270 cities across the country in the largest-ever day of action calling for a $15 minimum wage.
“If you’re working hard every day, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty,” said Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York. “We need legislators in Albany to stand on the side of working families who can’t make ends meet on $8.75 – not on the side of billionaire CEOs who’ve kept wages low for decades to inflate their own profits.”
Black Lives Matter and immigrant justice groups converged with fast food workers and union members on the State Capitol at 5:30 p.m., demanding wages that meet basic needs, an end to mass deportations and banning the practice of requiring the disclosure of criminal history on job applications.
“I work two jobs. One in fast food and one in home care. I work each of them part time because they don’t have full time hours available,” said Jareema Vanison, of Albany. “It’s not just fast food workers who are struggling to survive. There are workers earning poverty wages all across New York and we all need a living wage and we need it now. Not two, three or five years from now. We all need $15 an hour.”
In New York, 3 million people earn less than $15 an hour, according to the National Employment Law Project. Half of those workers are 35 years old or older and 48 percent are Black, Hispanic or Asian. Women are 8 percent more likely to be low paid than men and
A living wage – the hourly pay needed to cover basic costs like housing, food and utilities – is actually $19.91 for a single adult in New York and higher for families with children, according to a report by the Alliance for a Just Society. It would take 91 hours of work per week to cover the cost of living in New York on $8.75.
“Tens of thousands of cafeteria workers, teachers’ aides, bus monitors and adjunct professors live paycheck to paycheck, working for wages that barely allow them to make ends meet. They wonder whether the American Dream includes people like them. They work hard, follow the rules and still find themselves falling behind,” said NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta. “Today’s Day of Action highlights their plight, and demonstrates why a $15 minimum wage for all workers is a necessary step towards making the American Dream available to all.”
“On behalf of the 37,000 registered nurses in the New York State Nurses Association, we stand together with underpaid working people across the country demanding living wages to sustain families and build better communities,” said Jill Furillo, RN, Executive Director of NYSNA. “The wealthy and the powerful have re-written the rules in their favor and created a ‘race to the bottom.’ Low wages and poverty have created an overwhelming and growing public health crisis in our communities and the time has come for corporate CEOs to raise pay and respect our right to form unions without retaliation. NYSNA stands with all of you today. After all, decent pay is critical to the health of our New York workforce.”
“The Fast Food Wage Board was an important first step in the fight for a living wage – but it was just that, a first step. Now, it’s time for the State Senate to take action and pass a wage that people can actually live on,” said Sean Collins, organizer with SEIU Local 200United. “From healthcare workers to janitors to contingent faculty who have fought for and won unions at colleges across the Capital District. We stand in solidarity with brave fast food workers on strike.”
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