Employees at New York City’s small businesses will get a raise to start 2020 as the state’s $15 minimum wage becomes universal inside the five boroughs.
New York City-based businesses with fewer than 11 workers will have to pay employees at least $15 an hour beginning December 31, up from the previous baseline wage of $13.50.
Larger employers inside of the five boroughs were already required to pay wages of $15 an hour.
In Westchester County and on Long Island, the minimum wage will tick up to $13 an hour. Businesses in the suburbs were previously required to pay at least $12 per hour.
Meanwhile, the minimum wage will rise to $11.80 an hour in upstate communities.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to raise the state’s minimum wage in 2016 in phases after coming under intense pressure from liberal politicians and progressive activists, including Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“With this monumental increase in the minimum wage, New York is continuing to lead the way to restoring economic justice for working families,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The proposal was fiercely opposed by many conservative and business groups, which argued it would compound upstate’s economic woes.
But a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in September found that the higher minimum wage actually boosted the average earnings of employees in typically low-wage tourism and hospitality industries — without hurting jobs.
The study compared the economic outcomes in many counties where New York state borders Pennsylvania.
“Concerns of diminished employment growth in New York’s leisure and hospitality industry as a result of the rising minimum wage seem not to have been borne out,” the study found. basic