X-posted from The Albany Project.
In a potentially massive win for the #FightFor15 movement in New York, the Labor Department's Wage Board is unanimously backing not only a significant minimum wage increase for fast food workers in New York, but a raise to $15 per hour.
Most fast-food workers in New York will receive a wage increase to $15 an hour, but the details still have to be worked out.
Members of the state wage board said during their meeting this morning that they all agreed the wage should be raised to at least $15 an hour.
"The three members on the board are in agreement that there should be a substantial increase," said Byron Brown, chairman of the wage board and mayor of Buffalo.
All three members said at $15 an hour was the minimum amount for people to be self-sufficient if they are supporting a family. And most fast-food workers are, they said.
It's hard to overstate just how big this could be for fast food workers in New York, but the Wage Board is only making recommendations to the labor commissioner. He can reject, accept or modify their recommendations. That said, whatever he orders will happen without any need of legislative approval. (Sorry, state Senate Republicans)
New York State’s Wage Board will recommend a “substantial increase” in the minimum wage paid to fast food workers in the state, it said. It will also look for ways to incentivize fast food corporations to offer more consistent hours and more opportunities for full-time work.
The Wage Board met Monday to discuss and make recommendations to the state labor commissioner on a proposed increase in the minimum wage for fast food workers. The state labor commissioner can accept, reject or modify the board’s recommendations. If the commissioner decides to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers, he can do so without legislative approval because of a labor law provision that allows raises for individual occupations.
As you can see, the board members are also going to be recommending ways to incentivize the fast food industry to also take action on a number of issues that are of supreme importance to their workers. Lack of consistent work schedules makes arranging things like child care or making doctors appointments a nightmare. Any action that could alleviate such problems for fast food workers would also be a huge win.
All that said, the industry is already grumbling about how unfair it all is.
Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, said the group is against any wage increase that targets a single industry.
"The NYS Restaurant Association continues to oppose a minimum wage increase that specifically targets a single industry," Fleischut said. "Any substantial raise to wages needs to be phased in over a significant amount of time to allow restaurants to prepare for a huge increase in labor costs."
It will be interesting to see exactly what the Wage Board recommends and what the commissioner decides to do with those recommendations. I have no doubt that whatever comes out of this process will be greatly shaped by Andrew Cuomo. We all know that he always has to have
his hands in everything.
And let us not forget that it was AG Eric Schneiderman that explained how Cuomo could appoint a wage board in the first place.
But make no mistake, this is already a huge victory for the fast food workers that have been fighting like hell for the last few years to get a livable wage. We should know later this summer just how huge that victory really is.
Kudos to the workers who have been fighting like hell for so long and to orgs like NYCC and Make The Road NY who have been working their asses off to make this happen.