Cuomo backs minimum wage boost; compromise emerges
ALBANY — Legislators on Wednesday began privately discussing a new way to increase the state’s minimum wage after Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave the long-blocked effort a big boost in his proposed budget.
Cuomo on Tuesday proposed to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.75. He didn’t, however, include a provision from the Assembly’s proposal that would index the wage to inflation to create automatic increases. That worried advocates for the working poor who say the buying power of a new minimum wage would quickly erode without indexing.
A day after the Democratic governor’s budget presentation, closed-door talks with legislators included an alternative to automatic inflationary increases that would more likely gain the critical support of the 31-member Senate Republican conference.
The proposal would set specific minimum wage levels to be enacted in coming years. That could begin with the $8.75 minimum wage that Cuomo proposes for July 1 or with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s proposal of $8.50 an hour this year and building to Cuomo’s level. It could be linked with business tax breaks that Senate Republicans have long sought.