The rise of inflation has prompted a couple New York State lawmakers to introduce legislation that raises the minimum wage.
The minimum wage is 15 dollars an hour in New York City. Paul Sonn is the State Policy Program Director at the National Employment Law Project. He says about quarter of the state’s workforce would be impacted by an increase that he says is overdue because of inflation.
“It’s really frontline essential workers in the state who have been sustaining all of us throughout the pandemic but whose pay has just not been keeping up.”
State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner have introduced legislation that would raise the minimum wage statewide. In New York City it would go to over 20 dollars an hour by year 2025. After that it would go up automatically every year based on inflation and workforce productivity.