New York’s minimum wage is set to increase on December 31.
In Upstate New York, workers will see a 70-cent increase to $13.20 an hour from the current rate of $12.50.
Minimum wage workers in Westchester County and in Long Island counties will see $15 an hour in the new year.
Fast food workers across New York also make $15 an hour, regardless of location.
The increases are part of New York’s minimum wage package, passed in 2016 by the state Legislature and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo with a five-year rising scale of wages, staggered across the state based on location.
USA Today reports the increase comes in the midst of the state’s ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which stifled economic growth and snarled the job market.
Last year, some lawmakers and business groups decried the state’s decision to raise the minimum wage as scheduled, saying it would maim struggling businesses trying to come out of the worst of the pandemic.
At the time, the state argued that low-wage workers were some of the hardest hit in 2020, particularly in the hospitality and retail sectors, and therefore they should receive a bump in pay.
This year, in its annual review of the state economy to determine whether a wage increase is warranted, New York’s Division of the Budget again found that the low-wage sector was the most severely impacted by the pandemic.
The state said 1 million jobs, or 57% of the private sector losses, were impacted in the three industries where minimum wage workers are most concentrated: retail, health care and hospitality.
Nationally, President Joe Biden signed an executive order in April, requiring a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal contractors starting on January 30, 2022.
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