New York S 4048: Increases the minimum wage annually; repealer

Bill Text

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S04048 Summary:

BILL NOS04048 

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SAME ASNo Same As

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SPONSORRAMOS

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COSPNSRBAILEY, BRISPORT, BROUK, CLEARE, COMRIE, COONEY, FERNANDEZ, GIANARIS, GONZALEZ, GOUNARDES,
 HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, JACKSON, KAVANAGH, KRUEGER, LIU, MAY, MAYER, MYRIE, PARKER, RIVERA,
 SALAZAR, SANDERS, SERRANO, STAVISKY, WEBB

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MLTSPNSR

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Amd §652, rpld §652 sub 6, ren §665 to be §669, add §665, Lab L

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Increases the minimum wage annually; provides for the enforcement of the minimum wage; repeals certain provisions of law relating thereto.

Go to top S04048 Actions:

BILL NOS04048 

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01/31/2025REFERRED TO LABOR

01/07/2026REFERRED TO LABOR

Go to topS04048 Committee&nbspVotes:

Go to topS04048 Floor&nbspVotes:

There are no Assembly votes for this bill in this legislative session.

Go to topS04048 Text:

 STATE OF NEW YORK
 ________________________________________________________________________

 4048

 2025-2026 Regular Sessions

 IN SENATE

 January 31, 2025
 ___________

 Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, BAILEY, BRISPORT, BROUK, CLEARE, COMRIE,
 COONEY, FERNANDEZ, GIANARIS, GONZALEZ, GOUNARDES, HARCKHAM,
 HOYLMAN-SIGAL, JACKSON, KAVANAGH, KRUEGER, LIU, MAY, MAYER, MYRIE,
 PARKER, RIVERA, SALAZAR, SANDERS, SERRANO, STAVISKY, WEBB -- read
 twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the
 Committee on Labor

 AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to raising the minimum wage
 annually by a percentage which is based on inflation and providing for
 the enforcement of such minimum wage; and to repeal subdivision 6 of
 section 652 of the labor law relating thereto

 The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
 bly, do enact as follows:

 1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "raise the
 2 wage act".
 3 § 2. Legislative findings. As New Yorkers struggle with the rapidly
 4 rising cost of living, their paychecks are not keeping up. The state
 5 minimum wage has been flat at $15 in New York city since 2019. In the
 6 New York city suburbs it is also stalled at $15 and under current law
 7 will not increase further. And in the rest of the state, years after the
 8 legislature last acted to raise the minimum wage it is still gradually
 9 inching up to $15, but will not increase further until the legislature
 10 acts.
 11 At the same time, record inflation is causing the real value of the
 12 minimum wage to plummet across the state as consumers struggle with the
 13 rapidly rising cost of necessities. In New York city, its value has
 14 already fallen more than 15%, and is projected to fall a further 15% by
 15 2027, or even more if consumer price inflation does not moderate in 2023
 16 and 2024 as expected. This steep decline in the minimum wage is revers-
 17 ing the historic reductions in poverty and earnings inequality that the
 18 state achieved with the $15 minimum wage. And even once inflation

 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD08510-01-5

 S. 4048 2

 1 returns to more typical levels, workers will continue to lose real wages
 2 as long as our minimum wage remains stagnant.
 3 While in 2016 New York led the nation as the first state to adopt a
 4 $15 minimum wage, today it has fallen behind the many other cities and
 5 states that are raising their minimum wages well beyond $15. About fifty
 6 cities and counties and two states will have minimum wages above $15 an
 7 hour as of January 2023, and a growing group will have minimum wages of
 8 more than $17 or $18 an hour. The fact that Yakima, Washington, Fresno,
 9 California, and Denver, Colorado will all have higher minimum wages than
 10 New York shows how far pay has fallen in the state.
 11 To fix this, first, the value of New York city's minimum wage needs to
 12 be restored by "catching it up" to where it would have been if it had
 13 been adjusted steadily each year since 2019 to keep pace with rising
 14 prices and workforce productivity. That translates to raising the mini-
 15 mum wage to $21.25 an hour by 2026.
 16 Second, because the state minimum wage in New York city's suburbs,
 17 including Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, is also stalled at
 18 $15 and those regions have housing and living costs that are almost as