January 1, 2019 marked the implementation of NYC’s minimum wage increase to $15 per hour. Any place of work that has 10 members of staff or more, has to pay them at least $15 per hour. NYC will be the 43rd state to raise the minimum wage legally like this. In this article, we look at the impacts of that.
In addition, the first US city that is implementing minimum wage for ride-sharing driver employees is NYC. A requirement has been passed by NYC’s Taxi and Limousine Commission for “high volume” drivers of such vehicles to be entitled to $17.22 after expenses which would result in an approximate $10,000 annual raise.
Although in theory it’s great according to bakery boss Amy Scherber who has a 210-person staff throughout seven bakeries in NYC:
“It is a very tricky and delicate situation. We’d love to give a good raise to every person, but the reality is there’s just not that much extra money around.” Plus there is the added complication of needing to give raises to those employees who were already making $15 before 2019. You can’t just “raise the bottom rung.”
So how is the raised minimum wage likely to help? Well, according to a recent New York Times article, $70,000 is required per year for a two-parent, two-kid family to look in Brooklyn. This is assuming both parents are making $16 an hour. As such, $15 per hour is still not going to cut it.