Raising the city’s minimum wage to $13.13 an hour would generate $6 billion a year in new wages and put an extra $100 in the pockets of 1.2 million New Yorkers each week, a new report found.
Gov. Cuomo recently embraced a proposal to raise the state minimum to $10.10 and let localities boost their own wages by up to 30% on top of that — meaning the city could raise its rate to a high of $13.13.
“New York City deserves the ability to set its own minimum wage,” said city Controller Scott Stringer, who did the analysis.
“We are falling behind other states and cities when it comes to the minimum wage, despite the fact that this is the most expensive city in which to live in the nation.”
According to his study, the change would generate $115 million a week — raising the hourly wage of affected workers by an average of $2.76.
The analysis only examines the impact on wages. It does not try to measure whether businesses would hire fewer workers if the minimum wage were hiked dramatically.
The biggest impact would come in Brooklyn, where 376,000 workers would get a raise averaging $2.79 an hour for a total of $39 million a week.
The proposal would also generate $22 million a week in the Bronx, $19 million in Manhattan, $33 million in Queens and $2 million on Staten Island.
Most of the extra money would be spent in local stores, the analysis found.
Stringer says research suggests raising wages will not cause employers to cut jobs, though he acknowledges no one has yet studied the impact of such dramatic hikes, like the $15-an-hour minimum recently enacted in Seattle.
“New York City should be in the lead when it comes to raising the minimum wage. The time has come for the Big Apple to pay its workers a wage that works for employees and employers,” he said.
