The raise is the highest minimum wage set by a government body anywhere in the country

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Tens of thousands of workers at airports in New York and New Jersey will see their minimum wage rise to $19 an hour after the states’ Port Authority voted Thursday to mandate the new wage.

It’s the highest minimum wage set by a government body anywhere in the country, advocates said.

The minimum wage hike will apply to 40,000 workers at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports – baggage handlers, security guards, cabin cleaners and others, most of them working for private contractors.

Workers at the airports have fought to improve their poor wages for years.

“A fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work – that compact has been violated, and the anger and the frustration and the polarization arises out of the violation of that basic compact,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who spoke at the Port Authority’s meeting in Jersey City, New Jersey, before its board voted.

“Working men and women are going backwards,” he said. “It is not a perception, it is a reality as a matter of math. They are going backwards, and what they’re saying is enough is enough.”

The $19 wage will be phased in by 2023. The first installment raise takes effect this November.

Currently, there are different minimum wages for the airports in New York and New Jersey – $13 for JFK and LaGuardia, and $10.45 for Newark.

Donna Hampton, a security worker at JFK, said higher wages will help her pay her rent, which she often can’t settle in full at the beginning of the month and gets hit with late fees.

“If you don’t have a roof over your head, you’re on the street,” she said. “I can sleep better at night. I don’t have anxiety attacks. It’s more peaceful. I find that I’m in a better mood when I go to work.”

Hampton said she’s even noticed a difference in the way bosses treat her and other workers as the wage increase has progressed. “The respect is back,” she said. “Yes, we are somebody. We took our dignity back.”

The authority overseeing airports is controlled by both states’ governors. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie had resisted further wage increases, but new governor Phil Murphy supported them.

Airport jobs once offered solid pay and benefits, but that changed as functions that were once done directly by airlines were outsourced to private contractors who cut costs.

“These were good middle class jobs,” said Hector Figueroa, president of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents airport workers.

Airport workers currently have “unacceptable high turnover”, said Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton – averaging 30%, and at some employers, 60% or higher.

“These new wage levels are essential to the safe, secure, and high quality operation of our airports,” he said.

Airlines have opposed the increase and suggested they may sue.

In a letter to the Port Authority in July, trade group Airlines for America said the agency “lacks the legal power to regulate wages of third parties”.

“The Port Authority’s assertion of safety and security to justify higher wages is ‘gloss’ to mask social goals,” wrote the group’s vice-president, Rob DeLucia. “The Port offers no evidence that increasing the minimum wage would improve either safety or security.”

Mojisola Arogundade, a cabin cleaner at Newark, said that with a bigger paycheck she hopes to afford a larger home for herself and her four children, who currently all squeeze into a one-bedroom apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

“We will live a better life with our family now. We just wanted a better life,” she said.

Mabel Richards, a ticket checker at LaGuardia, said she’s being forced to move out of her Bronx apartment and doesn’t know where she’ll go since she doesn’t make enough money to qualify for most apartments. She also worries about paying for her three kids’ education.

“With this raise, at least I can support them and give them a meaning to life,” she said.