NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- New York City was once a national leader on raising the minimum wage, but it now lags other U.S. cities as consumer prices have surged in a year that brought record inflation.
New York raised its minimum wage to $15 in 2018 in a move largely seen as a win for workers at the time.
However, the city didn’t link the minimum wage to the rate of inflation, and there are now growing calls for officials to go beyond $15.
“New York state, where it once was a leader, is no longer a leader,” said James Parrott, the director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.
Parrott said other cities are now leapfrogging New York, including Seattle, Denver and San Francisco, which are all at or above $17 an hour.
All of those cities linked their minimum wage to consumer inflation, which has eroded the purchasing power of the minimum wage.
“New York state did not do that, and because of that, New York City workers receiving a minimum wage now basically have a purchasing power of $13 an hour,” Parrott said.
Businesses are likely to push back, but Parrott said a higher minimum wage generates more economic activity. He said after wages were increased in 2018, “we saw [...] historic improvements in job growth and living standards for people that saw them.”
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