Fast Food Wage Board appointed by governor Andrew Cuomo announces plan which has city’s fast food workers on track to see same wage increase by 2018

After more than a year of organized action, fast food workers in New York are about to get what they have been demanding: a $15 minimum wage.

The Fast Food Wage Board appointed by New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that they are recommending a new $15 an hour minimum wage for fast food workers employed by chains with 30 or more stores nationwide.

Those working in New York City will see their wages increase to $15 an hour by December 2018, whereas those working in the rest of the state will see their wages increase at a slower pace and will reach $15 by July 2021.

New York will lead the way in fighting economic inequality, Cuomo said after the wage board announced its recommendations. “It is an injustice when you have a growing income inequality, [when] fewer and fewer Americans are becoming richer and richer and more Americans working harder and harder and getting left behind,” he said. “It is an injustice when working families in this country have gone backwards over the past 10 years when you add in inflation. It is a shame that in this nation with all our progress, one in five children live poverty. That is a shame.”

Cuomo also predicted that this will set a nationwide trend.

“When New York acts, the rest of the states follow. That is the New York way,” he said.

“This is a historical moment. We did it,” Jorel Ware, a McDonald’s worker, said at the rally celebrating the wage board’s recommendations. Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with both “I can’t breathe” and “Fight for $15”, he said fewer people would live in poverty thanks to the wage increase.

“It’s wonderful. I get to live on my own again. I am telling you it’s a wonderful thing. When I started the fight, I just wanted something better for myself,” he said. “The Fight for $15 has showed me what’s possible when people stick and work together.”

According to Byron Brown, mayor of Buffalo and chairman of the wage board, the board heard in-person testimonies and received over 2,000 additional written testimonies prior to making its decision.

“It’s not just good for the workers in the room, but it’s good for the economy. It’s good for the state and it’s good for America,” said Mike Fishman, secretary-treasurer of the SEIU and member of the wage board. He said that the fast food industry has not kept up with other industries and is currently being subsidized by billions of tax dollars.

“[These subsidies are] something that became clear to us, the people who talked to us,” he said, adding that when the wages are raised, those tax dollars can go to other programs. “When industry will not correct itself, the governor has to step in.”

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Fast food workers in New York City will get their first pay hike this December, to $10.50, which will be followed by a $1.50 increase in December of 2016, 2017 and 2018. In the rest of the state, the wage of fast food workers will go up to $9.75 in December of this year, and then increase by a $1 each year up to December 2019. In December 2020, it will increase by 75 cents and by 50 cents in July 2021, when it will finally reach $15 an hour.



Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) Here's the phase-in schedule the NY Fast Food Wage Board is recommending: pic.twitter.com/6Qd4xrEkUO

The reason for the faster increase in wages in New York City is that chains in the city benefit from the influx of tourists and the business they bring year-round.

According to the board, the incremental increases represent compromise between both workers and employers.

“On one hand, we would all like everyone to make more money,” said Kevin Ryan, chairman and founder of Gilt and a wage board member. “On the other hand, we also know that our businesses have to be successful. If our business are not successful, then there won’t be new jobs for anyone. We wanted to balance that.”

As Cuomo pointed out when he announced the appointment of the board, these recommendations “do not require legislative approval”.

Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) Today was a huge win but we aren't finished. There is a 15 day comment period and we will need everyone to weigh in for $15 in NY.

There will now be a 15-day comment period, after which the New York labor commissioner can adjust the recommendations before he submits them to become a law.

“The labor commissioner will review the work of the wage board, but I think there is no doubt that we are headed in the right direction,” said Cuomo.