| Assembly to pass minimum-wage hike Albany -- Legislators plan to press Senate to approve
hourly wage of $6.75
Speaker Sheldon Silver said Thursday that the Assembly will pass legislation next
week raising the minimum wage to $6.75, and with 17 Senate Republicans backing the bill,
the measure stands a good chance of approval in both houses.
"We had some positive developments this week with the governor indicating his
support for increasing the minimum wage and the number of Republican senators that signed
on in the last couple of weeks,'' said Senate Labor Committee Chairman Nicholas Spano,
D-Westchester County. "We are going to put on a full-court press to pass it in the
Senate.''
Silver said the bill, sponsored by Assembly Labor Committee Chairwoman Catherine Nolan,
D-Queens, will be taken up early next week. It would raise the minimum wage to $6.75 from
$5.15. About 880,000 New Yorkers were paid sums ranging from $5.15 to $6.74 an hour in
1999, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
"I think it's got a very good chance at passage; it's fair, it's equitable and
it's affordable for the people of the state,'' Spano said.
Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Frank Moreau said taxpayers would save if
the rate of pay was raised because tax revenues would rise, while earned income tax
credits and food stamp benefits would fall.
Yet the measure is opposed by the Business Council of New York, which stresses that the
federal government should decide the wage minimum.
"If the minimum wage is higher in New York than it is in other states, that puts
businesses near borders at a competitive disadvantage,'' said Matthew Maguire. Higher
wages translate to costlier goods and services, he said.
Gov. George Pataki earlier this week voiced similar concerns about the state's
competitiveness, but said he supports a minimum wage increase in principle.
Pataki, meanwhile, is negotiating with Assembly officials on gun-control and
sexual-assault legislation, said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, D-Brooklyn. He said he
anticipates that bills will be worked out before the end of the session.
Silver said an HMO reform bill that would allow patients to sue insurers will likely be
dealt with in the next two weeks. Although the session is scheduled to end June 14, Silver
said only that he expects the finish to be in "mid-June.''
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