Pay soars after ‘Fight for $15’

THEY WERE among the faces of the fight to raise New York’s minimum hourly wage to $15 — and over the past few years, their lives have changed for the better because of it.

Three years ago, the Daily News detailed the struggle of several local airport workers who tried to get by on $7.25 an hour — then the going rate.

As part of the national “Fight for $15” movement, the airport workers joined with other minimum-wage earners to demand better pay and better treatment on the job.

In New York, Gov. Cuomo signed legislation in April 2016 to phase in salary increases to bring the minimum wage to $15 for all workers in the state by the end of 2018.

Workers at Kennedy and LaGuardia airports now earn a minimum of $11 an hour — and will get another bump to $13 on Dec. 31, and an additional $2 the year after that.

Service workers at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports — who push wheelchairs, patrol public areas and clean terminals, among other jobs — also waged a successful campaign to unionize, becoming part of 32BJ SEIU.

They inked their first contract this year — setting important work safety standards and other benefits.

While the boost to the workers’ bottom line isn’t huge, it’s wrought big improvements in their lives already.

Prince Jackson, 59, of Brooklyn, calculates that he brings home $100 more a week than he did three years ago.

He no longer relies on his local church food pantry for ON LABOR DAY, dozens of New York 1199 SEIU hospital workers will travel to Chicago, Detroit and other cities in the Midwest to kick off a major new political push by SEIU and the Fight for $15. They will be among the foot soldiers of a major political push by SEIU and the Fight for $15 to defeat anti-worker governors in battleground states across the country ahead of the 2018 election. Between Sept. 5 and the 2018 election, thousands of 1199 SEIU members in the city will volunteer at least 40 hours of their time to engage voters in battleground states, either through phone calls or door knocks. Dubbed “40 for 15,” the volunteers will try to help elect candidates that support a $15 minimum wage and union rights. meals — although he does still stop by every once in a while when it’s a tight month.

“The biggest change is that I no longer live in a rented room,” said Jackson, who used to pay $150 a week for the windowless space.

“I’m married now and we have an apartment. With what my wife earns and I earn now, we are doing OK — but we still have a long way to go,” said Jackson.

The couple has also been able to buy a car, which Jackson uses for his second job as a for-hire driver.

“I am doing food deliveries for Uber to make some extra money, because the rent still takes about half of what we earn,” he said.

Jackson is eager for his next pay raise — but ultimately hopes the state Legislature increases the the minimum hourly wage to $17 an hour.

He’s also happy to be part of 32BJ, which has given him and other contracted airport security workers more job protections, as well as a paid holiday for Martin Luther King Day.

“We definitely have more respect coming from the companies . . . there’s no more firing at will,” he said.

For airport terminal cleaner Alberto Grand, 33, who wants to move out of his parents’ Queens home, the money can’t come fast enough.

“It’s much better than when we earned $7.25, but we all still struggle. It could be higher,” he said.

His employer is still adjusting to the fact that the workers are now part of a union, he said.

“They’re used to being able to do whatever they want . . . you still feel like you have to watch your back a bit,” he said.

When Grand was making $7.25 an hour, he got his health care through Medicaid. But with the increase to $11, he’s moved to the Affordable Care Act.

“The job has health care benefits, but none of us can afford to pay for it; it’s like half the check of what we make,” he said. “We’re working on improving that.”

Terminal cleaner Shareeka Elliott, 30, a Brooklyn mom of two, went from grossing $295 a week in 2014 to $441 a week now, according to her pay stubs.

The roughly $600 a month increase has allowed her to quit her second job at McDonald’s to spend more time with her family.

“The worst pressure is off. Things are better, but they could be better still. It’s still hard to save,” said Elliott.