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Minimum Wage Rate To Rise By $1 An Hour

Upstate New York’s minimum wage is expected to increase by $1 an hour, effective Dec. 31.

On Friday, the state Department of Labor announced that Commissioner Roberta Reardon issued an crder calling for the minimum wage rate in counties outside of New York City, Long Island and Westchester to rise by $1 per hour, from $13.20 to $14.20, following a required economic analysis conducted by the New York State Division of the Budget. The Division’s analysis found evidence of pressure for wages to rise in the midst of a continued pandemic-driven labor shortage.

Currently, the minimum wage rate in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County is $15 per hour, having reached that level following phased-in annual increases pursuant to statute.

“By raising the minimum wage incrementally, New York State is helping businesses adjust to the new rate, while giving low-wage workers the ability to better participate in our economy,” Reardon said. “Continuing with the multi-year plan to raise the minimum wage is in line with market standards and ensures that no worker is left behind.”

The commissioner’s order will be enacted through rulemaking and is subject to public comment before a final decision is made. The state Labor Department announced the start of the public comment period for New Yorkers to weigh in on the recommendation and invited New Yorkers to share feedback by e-mailing regulations@labor.ny.gov by Dec. 11. If accepted, the wage increase would take effect on Dec. 31.

An average of 200,000 New Yorkers in these upstate counties will benefit from this wage increase, 44% of which are full time workers and of those, nearly 25% are supporting children below age 18. In addition, this increase will help to close the gender pay gap, providing an estimated 110,000 women with greater financial stability.

New York’s minimum wage statute requires that Department of Budget review the state’s economy annually to determine whether wage increases should move forward as scheduled. For the minimum wage that will be applicable in 2023, the statute also requires that the Budget Department, in coordination with the Labor Department, evaluate various economic factors, such as consumer prices, and determine the rate of minimum wage increases outside of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester.

In its analysis, DOB considered various measures of inflation; statewide average wages; labor productivity; the pace of the state’s labor market recovery; labor demand and supply; regional unemployment rates and other trends in the low-wage employment sector; the impact of COVID-19 on the minimum wage workforce; and other factors.

Like the rest of the nation, the New York labor market is expected to continue to slow in the coming months. Because of the importance of financial markets to the state economy, the Federal Reserve’s apparent shift to aggressively battling inflation will have a disproportional impact in New York. As a result, state employment growth is projected to slow from 4.3 percent in 2022 to 0.8 percent in 2023. State employment is not expected to reach its pre-pandemic level until 2026.

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