A coalition of New York state lawmakers, workers and advocates launched a “Living Wage for All” campaign on Tuesday, January 27, introducing a package of bills they say would raise the statewide minimum wage and eliminate every subminimum wage still permitted under state law. The group announced the campaign and the legislation at a press conference and rally at the State Capitol in Albany, according to the campaign.
The campaign framed the effort around affordability, arguing that the state’s cost-of-living debate must address paychecks as well as expenses. In its advisory for the launch, the NY Living Wage for All campaign said affordability “must address paychecks AND cost of living,” casting higher base wages as central to that argument rather than a separate concern.
According to the campaign, the legislative package would raise New York’s minimum wage statewide and end all of the state’s subminimum wages — the lower base rates that, under current rules, can be paid to certain categories of workers. The campaign has tied the subminimum-wage provisions to tipped restaurant workers and to workers with disabilities, and the launch drew support from disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, women’s rights, labor and community organizations.
State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Demond Meeks were among the legislators who introduced the measures, the campaign said. Other sponsoring and supporting lawmakers named by the campaign included Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, Assemblymember Phil Steck, State Senator Robert Jackson and State Senator Zellnor Myrie. The lawmakers were joined by worker leaders and by restaurant owners the campaign described as supporting fair wage standards, an attempt to show that some employers back ending the lower tipped wage.
Among the advocates the campaign listed as taking part were Lindsay Miller, Donna Hylton, Carola Otero Bracco and Jirandy Martinez. Organizations backing the campaign, according to its materials, included One Fair Wage, the New York Association on Independent Living, Neighbors Link, the Community Resource Center and A Little Piece of Light, alongside a broader set of labor, racial justice, immigrant rights and women’s rights groups.
The campaign signaled the rollout in stages, sending an advisory days ahead that lawmakers would “join advocates for press conference and rally” at the Capitol and a follow-up notice the day before the introduction. In its release announcing the launch, the campaign said the package was intended to “raise wages statewide and end subminimum wages,” and it called on the Legislature to take up the bills as part of the session’s affordability agenda.
The campaign did not, in the materials reviewed, specify a dollar figure for the proposed statewide minimum wage, a phase-in schedule or the bill numbers for the individual measures, and the proposals would need to clear both the State Senate and the Assembly before reaching the governor. Separately, the New York Amsterdam News has reported that the underlying legislation would raise New York’s minimum wage to $30, end all subminimum wages — including for incarcerated workers and workers with disabilities — and index future wages to inflation. The launch marks the opening of a legislative and advocacy push the coalition says it intends to carry through the current session in Albany.
