Minimum-wage raise comes at a steep price

Gov. Cuomo’s bid to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all entrylevel workers would cost state and local governments — as well as publicly funded nonprofit groups — hundreds of millions of dollars year, a fiscal watchdog said.

“A pay bump to $15 an hour would boost personnel costs by $25 million for the state’s executive branches, and by $39 million for New York City,” said the Empire Center for Public Policy.

But Empire Center analyst E.J. McMahon said the figure is “just the tip of the iceberg” and only accounts for hourly and seasonal employees, not fulltime workers who also make less than $15 an hour. There are more than 15,000 state workers making less than that.

That figure climbs to “hundreds of millions of dollars” when adding increases in costs to government contractors that provide public services to citizens, McMahon said. “Somebody has to pay,” he added. With Vice President Joe Biden at his side, Cuomo last week announced an acrosstheboard $15 minimum wage in New York City by 2018 and upstate by 2021. The move will likely require legislative approval.

The state labor commission just approved a $15 wage for workers in the fastfood industry.

The current minimum wage $8.75. It goes up to $9 on Dec. 31.

Carl Campanile

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