The public is behind Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 per hour, according to one statewide poll. Cuomo proposed the increase during his State of the State address last week.
A Siena College Research Institute poll, conducted on January 10 and January 13 to 15, says that 83 percent of the people surveyed support the minimum wage increase. The institute surveyed 676 registered voters.
Last year, Democrats tried to get a minimum wage increase through the Legislature. The legislation was backed by a variety of groups, including labor and clergy. But Republicans, who controlled the Senate, wouldn’t bring the measure up for a vote, so it died.
This year, the Legislature’s dynamic is different. The Assembly, with its large Democratic majority, is almost guaranteed to pass minimum wage legislation; it had no problems passing last year’s proposal. And the Senate, is now under the control of a coalition of Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference. The IDC members want the Senate to pass a minimum wage increase, and the conference has the ability to bring it to the floor for a vote. And since last year, several Republican senators have come forward and said they support a minimum wage increase.
Those Republicans appear to have support from voters in their party. The Siena Research Institute says that 70 percent of Republicans polled support a minimum wage increase. It also says that, of the people polled who identify as conservative, 72 percent support an increase.
This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2013.
so when we voting for this in 2015 or so longer the wait higher they want it and wwill not work so lets start now with 50 3 times common sense people
The minimum wage in 1956 was $1.00/hr. Adjusted for inflation, that equals close to $8.50/hr today.
We pay people less than we did nearly 60 years ago.
So when asked, a majority of poll respondents are in favor of free stuff. Wow, what an insight.
The minimum wage is hardly “free stuff”; more right-wing drivel. American has rejected this nonsense.
Increasing the minimum wage is another unfunded state mandate. Businesses are told to pay their workers more money out of their own pocket. Why should the state be telling business how they manage their payroll? This is typical in a socialist utopia like NY: It can’t fiscally manage itself yet dictates what business must do (whether they can afford it or not). NY an over-regulating, business unfriendly tax hell.
“Unfunded mandate” here, then, also means, oh, our local police and fire departments; airline and air travel safety, safe working conditions, weekends off, food safety, auto safety, less polluted air and water, paid vacation for workers, and so on – all the things business leaders once assured us we “couldn’t afford.”
Troll Wisperer: How does the state, by dictating minimum wage, affect ‘air travel safety’, ‘auto safety’, ‘food safety’ and reduced air and water pollution? Private business does not pay for any of that through wages, and TAXES pay for police and fire departments. You seem to think that all of the worlds’ problems can be solved by the state raising the minimum wage.
Is this the same Bart that just a few weeks ago was, in this site, bellowing, “All hail Obama,” for the sheer nerve of letting the ruinous Bush tax cuts expire on the wealthiest Americans? And then now with the absurd notion that raising the minimum wage is an “unfunded mandate”? Bart, it is you who does not know what an actual unfunded mandate is, which has absolutely nothing to do with the minimum wage. But thanks for demonstrating for the zillionth time the right-wing canard that money is good for the rich and bad for the poor, that the wealthiest among us don’t have enough and the poorest among us have plenty.
Troll: You miss the point altogether. NY state telling business they must raise their workers’ pay is just like NY state telling counties they must raise county taxes and spend money on what the state directs them to: ie an unfunded mandate. This was a COMPARISON of the state dictating someone else’s spending. And with regards to the Obama Tax Hike on the Rich: the tax hike included an increase in payroll tax hike on the MIDDLE CLASS that all workers must now pay (take a look at your latest pay stub). Funny Obama didn’t tout that fact when he took credit for his tax hike on “the rich”. Another case of having to passing a law to find out what’s in it!
When New York State requires a local government to perform an activity that requires funding, and the funding is provided, then the mandate is funded. A mandate without these funds is, well, unfunded. Additional revenues can come from any number of sources without the need to raise taxes. The use of this concept as applied to the minimum wage is a perversion of the language. There is room for legitimate debate as to how much it should be increased. We do hear the same reasons for resisting an increase. If we believed every one of them, we’d still be stuck at $1.65 / hr.
I wonder what right the state has to dictate anyone’s pay? If it’s good for the state to make businesses pay a minimum wage of $8.75 per hour, then it would be great for the state to make them pay $20 per hour, wouldn’t it? It doesn’t cost the state anything. The only option businesses have is to lay off workers when the dictated wages get too high. Hopefully the state won’t start telling businesses how many people they should employ. I guess it’s OK to screw businesses because they are rich and evil according to the new progressive socialists like Cuomo. His “New York; Open for Business” campaign is a joke and a lie. NY is still the same old anti-business tax hell.
“Progressive socialist”? As opposed to “reactionary socialist”? We are clearly in deranged territory here. Enjoy!
A minimum wage accomplishes precisely two things, and nothing else: It reduces the number of jobs that otherwise would be available, and it gives liberals an excuse to congratulate themselves.