Better check
The Black Eyed Peas these days don’t quite have the cachet they once did, but in an earlier era, the pop-rap group topped the charts. You might remember their ubiquitous synth-heavy hit “Boom Boom Pow.” Can you hear it? The last time the federal minimum wage was raised, that song was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
For more than 14 years now, the minimum standard for pay nationwide has been $7.25 an hour, a baseline that was pretty low to begin with and which has only gotten pitifully lower as inflation has eroded buy power and certain costs have kept up a steep upward climb. Some recent Zillow research suggests that, for the country’s 50 largest cities, that wage would on average require four wage-earners to afford a single two-bedroom apartment.
That same research also showed something interesting: even in cities with much higher costs of living, higher minimum wages actually decreased the expected rent burden for a minimum wage earner; put another way, the higher wages compensated for the higher housing costs and then some. So it’s a good thing that we here in one of the most expensive cities in the world have not left our lower-wage workers to the mercy of the outmoded federal minimum wage.
In fact, minimum-wage workers in the city and the suburbs will be getting a raise next week, with the pay being bumped a dollar from $15 to $16 an hour as part of a long-planned series of hikes to $17 by 2026, after which the standard will be pegged to inflation.
A dollar more an hour would go all but unnoticed for the city’s many high earners, including our growing class of millionaires, but it is indispensable for the New Yorkers who help the city run. It can’t come soon enough, as these families have been beset by high inflation over the past year, the end of federal COVID-era social programs, rising child care costs and other financial shocks.
We’re certainly sympathetic to the business owners who are fretting over what this change will mean for their margins, which is why the legislation was crafted with clear raises diagrammed out years ahead; businesses have had plenty of time to prepare, and should remember that these expenditures also translate to generally happier and more productive employees. Ultimately, when low-wage workers don’t make enough to live, we all end up paying for it anyway, via more expensive and disruptive backend fixes like food assistance and homeless shelters. f course, a minimum wage only means something if it’s guaranteed and enforced, and it is the responsibility of the state Department of Labor to make sure that workers around the state are getting their due. Sharply falling rates of recovery for unpaid wages and a lack of prioritization for this work, as reported recently in New York Focus, are very concerning.
Gov. Hochul and DOL Commissioner Roberta Reardon should publicly recommit to this important mission, fill critical roles in the agency, and make clear that wage theft will not be tolerated. Recovering months’ or years’ worth of unpaid wages — money they are rightfully owed — can be a life-changing situation for low-income families, many of whom don’t believe that they have any recourse. It’s up to the DOL to prove them wrong.
O