Staff Reporter: Workers wages are rising across the state of New York in the United States. At the beginning of next year, the minimum wage will be $15 per hour. The news of increase in wages has brought relief to the ordinary workers.
The minimum wage for workers in the three downtown counties of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk in New York will be raised to $15 an hour. Employees of large corporations in New York City have been earning $ 15 an hour since late 2018, and from now on Long Island counties will receive wages at a rate that is equivalent to City’s current wage rate. Fast food store workers are being paid $15 across the state of New York, no matter where they work. Apart from this, the wages of the workers for other work in the rest of the state, which is currently $12.50 per hour, will be increased to $13.20 on 31st December.
As part of the New York Minimum Wage Package passed by the state legislature in 2016, and approved by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, the law, which promised to increase wages within five years, failed to materialize. Under the ongoing economic recovery plan of Covid 19, the issue of wage increase was also given special importance and it was decided not to delay the wage increase in order to speed up the work.
Last year, some state lawmakers and business groups criticized the minimum wage increase law, saying it was a blow to them when they were unable to run their businesses properly due to the epidemic and were forced to lay off workers. The state government argues that low-income people have been the hardest hit by the epidemic and have so far been unable to stand on their own two feet.
In this situation low income people are entitled to fair wages. According to state statistics, one million workers in the private sector lost their jobs during the epidemic, accounting for 57 percent of the total number of workers in the private sector in the state, and these workers were mainly employed in the retail, healthcare and hospitality sectors.
Therefore, in order to recover these damaged sectors, it is possible to do so only by increasing the wages of the workers. Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said “This decision to increase wages is a testament to our commitment to equality and justice.
She acknowledged, however, that many employers were already paying higher wages than the minimum wage. This is because the demand for workers has increased a lot in the United States, including New York, during the epidemic. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in April stating that federal contractors will be required to pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour from January 30, 2022.
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