New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour would cost “hundreds of millions” of dollars to state and local governments, as well as publicly funded groups. The plan, announced last week, would would kill off thousands of jobs in the state frequently touted as being “open for business.” The across-the-board increase would be $5.53 higher than any other statewide rate.
The Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscal watchdog, is quoted by the New York Post as saying, “A pay bump to $15 an hour would boost personnel costs by $25 million for the state’s executive branches, and by $39 million for New York City.”
But Empire Center analyst E.J. McMahon said the figure is “just the tip of the iceberg” and only accounts for hourly and seasonal employees, not full-time workers who also make less than $15 an hour. There are more than 15,000 state workers making less than that.
That figure climbs to “hundreds of millions of dollars” when adding increases in costs to government contractors that provide public services to citizens, McMahon said.
“Somebody has to pay,” he added.
Somebody always does – in this case, the business owners who will be forced to cut jobs or hours to make up for an increase in costs.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
