More than two hundred members of the Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage joined with low-income workers, faith leaders, women’s groups, and advocates on Wednesday, March 19, to call on State Senator Jeff Klein and Governor Cuomo to right their wrongs, and give workers a real minimum-wage increase.
“A year since Klein and Cuomo negotiated this backroom minimum-wage deal, tipped workers are still left out, millions of dollars are still going towards corporate subsidies, and workers who do get the new minimum wage still can’t make ends meet, Sarah Ahn of the Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage Increase said. “Their law is causing more income and wealth disparity among New Yorkers.” The protest took place in front of the Senate State office at 250 Broadway in Manhattan.
Public Advocate Tish James called for more action on wage theft and for a higher minimum wage.
For decades, working conditions in the U.S. have been getting worse–workers’ wages have been plunging, the middle class has been shrinking, and working people often need to work two jobs to put food on the table. Pastor Heidi Neumark of Trinity Lutheran Church pointed out that while productivity rose in the U.S. since 1973, workers’ pay has not gone up. Citing the scriptures. ’In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards’, Pastor Neumark said “Workers should benefit from the profits they help to produce. Workers should enjoy the fruits of their labors. That is justice. That is why we need a higher minimum wage increase.”
The general public overwhelmingly supports an increase of the minimum wage to more than $10 an hour. Even President Obama is proposing this. But Governor Cuomo and elected officials such as Senator Jeff Klein ignore the needs of the working people in New York State and do everything within their powers to support corporate interests.
Senator Klein’s decision last year to broker a deal to “share” power with the Senate Republicans rather than the majority Democrats in the Senate resulted in a three-year deal brokered behind closed doors with Cuomo. The result: a bill detrimental to workers and beneficial to corporations. The deal raised the minimum wage to only $9 an hour by 2016, forcing many workers to stay below poverty level. The deal also excluded food tipped workers, 72% of whom are women. The law puts no resources towards enforcement of the law to ensure its minimum-wage increase. Yet, the law subsidizes corporations to hire teens, which will encourage employers to replace older workers with teens.
A year after signing this bill, Cuomo has still refused to convene a minimum wage board to raise the pay for food workers who receive tips. And, while the coalition has called for the repeal of last year’s minimum-wage teenage tax credit that subsidizes corporate employers, only the Assembly has included this repeal in its budget resolution.
Enforcement remains a serious problem. Countless workers report that they don’t receive the new $8 an hour. Says Edgar Juarez, a dishwasher in Manhattan, “When I asked the manager why I wasn’t getting the new minimum wage, she said, ‘that’s the government’s problem, not our problem.’”
“One of the reasons why New York City and State lead the country in income inequality is the massive problem of wage theft from low-income workers. Cuomo needs to step up to the plate for minimum wage workers, rather than always passing around the plate to the 1% for campaign contributions.” said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS. Recent surveys indicate that low-income workers in NYC lose $1 billion a year in wage theft.
But when workers come forward to complain, they are often left with nothing. The State Labor Department has weakly enforced the wage prevention law under Cuomo, with a backlog of 14,000 cases. “We hear it from our clients every day: a worker cannot count on the basic right to be paid for a day’s work,” Maia Goodell of MFY Legal Services said.
However, neither the Governor or the recent budget resolutions include increased funding to hire more labor investigators to improve wage enforcement. Noreen Connell, former President NOW-NYS and chair of Women’s Employment Task Force, said “The majority of workers whose salaries are at minimum wage are women. The lack of enforcement of wage and hour complaints in New York State makes a joke out of the recent increase in the minimum wage. It’s what I would call looking good, but not doing good. We need to restore public trust.”.
The coalition is asking State Senator Klein and Governor Cuomo to do the right thing:
– Repeal the corporate subsidy
– Increase the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour tied to inflation for all workers–including tipped employees
– Stop discriminating against women workers and older workers
– Enforce the labor law—take a stand against wage theft
“So many of us are working hard,” Adolfo Lopez of the National Mobilization Against SweatShops. “We’re working double shifts, two jobs, taking care of our families. But we’re forced to live with five roommates, use all our pay for babysitting. We’re all struggling, whether we’re making minimum wage, making less, making more. It’s time we come together and demand a REAL minimum wage increase for all of us! Let’s raise conditions for all of us!”