New York may adopt living wage

The living wage campaign has come to the Big Apple – and with a good chance of success.

That’s because 44 of the 50 members of the New York City Council, enough to override a possible veto from GOP Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have signed on to the bill to order a living wage of $8.10 per hour for a wide variety of workers.

Hearings are scheduled for mid-June with a vote expected in late June. If enacted, the living wage ordinance would help more than 70,000 workers, said campaign coordinator Gregory Heller.

Most of them are home health care workers represented by Hospital and Health Care Employees Local 1199. Other workers the ordinance would cover include street and city building cleaners and workers for firms that receive city tax breaks.

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After the initial rate is set, New York’s living wage would rise by 50 cents per year for the following four fiscal years, eventually reaching $10 an hour. If a firm doesn’t offer health care coverage, the living wage would start at $9.60.

That’s not much, in New York City. ‘$8.10 is not a lot to ask. Picture yourself on trying to live on $16,000 a year’ in New York, Heller says. ‘You couldn’t do it on double that.’

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As elsewhere, New York’s campaign has drawn support from a wide array of religious, community and labor organizations. Sponsors, part of the Working Families Coalition, include Local 1199, the New York City Central Labor Council, the United Federation of Teachers, Laborers Local 210, Service Employees Local 32B-32J, the Jewish Labor Committee, the United Food and Commercial Workers and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 100.

Opponents, primarily business, say the living wage ordinance could cost New York $50 million, and the city faces a $5 billion budget gap. Heller replies by noting 50,000 of the covered workers are home health care workers, members of Local 1199, who are 90 percent paid from federal Medicaid reimbursements. That lowers the cost to the city to $5 million, far less than the $45 million those workers would recycle into the city’s economy once they receive a living wage, he said.

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The proposed living wage ordinance would also help other workers. Heller said it includes a section authorizing the city comptroller to set prevailing wages for city security, food and janitorial workers.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.

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