Joseph Spector

Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY -- New York's move to a $15 an hour minimum wage has made its way into the Democratic presidential primary, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both rushing to say they support the plan.

Clinton appeared with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday to tout his bill signing of a law to move New York's current $9 an hour minimum wage to $15 by the end of 2018 in New York City, by the end of 2021 in Westchester and Long Island, and to $12.50 an hour upstate by the end of 2020, with further increases after that.

But Sanders' campaign knocked Clinton, contending that her support of a $15 wage is inconsistent with her support of a $12 wage nationally.

"Not too long ago, the establishment told us that a $15 minimum wage was unrealistic," Sanders said in a statement Monday on the passage of a $15 wage in New York and California. "Some thought it was ‘pie-in-the-sky.’ But a grassroots movement led by millions of working people refused to take ‘no’ for an answer."

On CNN Tuesday, Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver said Clinton was not sincere in her stance. Tuesday is the Wisconsin primary; New York's primary is April 19.

"The truth of the matter is that Secretary Clinton has not supported a $15 national minimum wage. That's a position that Sen. Sanders has advocated from the beginning of this campaign," he said.

Clinton said she supports efforts for a $15 wage in states and a $12 national wage.

"I supported the 'Fight for $15' from the very beginning and all of the unions that are part of the 'Fight for $15' have endorsed me because they know that I’m supporting efforts in states, such as New York, to go to $15," Clinton said on Time Warner Cable News on Monday. "But I am also working with the Democratic senators and members of Congress right now who have decided to go for a $12 minimum wage nationwide – with encouragement for states like New York to go even higher and then to index it to the median wage."

She said New York's phase in of the $15 wage will help businesses prepare and blunt the impact on companies, saying the higher wages would help the state's economy.

"We have an economy that is 70 percent consumption," Clinton said. "When most Americans have not had a raise and you have millions of Americans mired in a poverty situation, even though they work full time, of course that’s not good for them. It’s also not good for the economy."

On Monday, Sanders charged Clinton is nervous about the New York primary. Sanders is looking to the delegate-rich Empire State to narrow the gap with Clinton, the front-running former New York senator, who lives in Chappaqua, Westchester County.

Clinton had a 54-42 percent lead over Bernie Sanders in a Quinnipiac poll Thursday, but that's down from 21-percentage-point edge in a Siena College poll a few weeks prior.

"If we win in New York state, between you and me, I don’t want to get Hillary Clinton more nervous than she is," Sanders said Monday in Wisconsin.

Clinton was in Albany on Monday and in Brooklyn on Tuesday. The sides agreed Monday night to an April 14 debate in Brooklyn.

The former secretary of state said she plans to reconnect with New York voters after eight years as the state's senator from 2001 through 2008.

"This is New York," Clinton said on Time Warner. "I think I have to work really hard here because even though I have a history of representing the state, there are a lot of new voters and people who may not remember what I did in the Senate. After all, that was eight years ago."