‘Fight for $15’

Syracuse supports New York state’s effort to raise the minimum wage

The Syracuse Common Council voted 8-1 in February to urge the state’s lawmakers to adopt a measure that would set $15 an hour as the minimum wage for all workers in the city.

The approved resolution lends the city’s official backing to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the minimum wage for workers statewide.

“I don’t understand how it can be controversial just to give people an opportunity to live their lives with a certain standard,” Councilor Helen Hudson, who introduced the resolution, said before the vote. “If we give those folks an opportunity to take care of their own lives, it not only helps them but it helps our economy.”

The resolution also drew vocal support from organized labor. Ruth Heller, vice president of Local 1199, Service Employees International Union, said, “It shows the city of Syracuse is behind the people of the city of Syracuse, and as the city with the highest concentration of poverty among the Latino and African-American communities, it’s really important that we be attentive to changing things and the best way to lift people out of poverty is to pay people more.” The union has long been involved in lobbying for a higher minimum wage.

Minority Leader Joseph Carni, the lone Republican on the Council, was the sole vote against the resolution. He did not return requests for comment.

City workers in Syracuse have made a $15 minimum wage since Mayor Stephanie Miner raised their pay last October. Alexander Marion, the mayor’s press secretary, said Miner had no comment on the resolution.

In the private sector, the minimum wage remains at the statewide rate of $9 per hour. The state is moving to adopt the $15 minimum wage in the next five years. Cuomo announced in July the move to get the statewide minimum wage to $15 by 2021 through gradual increases each year.

The vote means the city formally supports New York state’s efforts to raise the wage.

Syracuse itself cannot adopt a $15 minimum wage for all workers because in New York state — unlike states such as Washington and California — cities don’t have the power to set the wage.

“In New York state, you can’t do that, so we’re trying to do this statewide” Heller said. “The fact that Syracuse is in support of it is really positive, and we expect to see more of that across the state.”

Supporters of a new minimum wage and its opponents, including some economists, disagree on how it would affect the state’s business climate.

An increase in the minimum wage would increase purchasing power for city residents, said Common Councilor Khalid Bey. “It’s very impractical to assume that people will be able to sustain themselves with the same minimum wage while the cost of living steadily increases,” Bey said. “So I think we need to be a little bit more responsible and a little bit more practical.”

Carl Schramm, a professor of economics at Syracuse University, said he believes the increased minimum wage in Syracuse would have an adverse effect on development. He added that when an above-average minimum wage is combined with New York state’s taxes, “no business would ever relocate” to the state.

Supporters of the increased minimum wage say it will ultimately benefit business for the new PriceRite grocery store on the South Side, which was given a Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes agreement at the Council meeting. Bey said in the immediate vicinity around the PriceRite, the concentrated buying power is on average with the rest of the city and Onondaga County.

Heller said the increased minimum wage would keep stores like PriceRite, which is located in what for years was considered a food desert, in business by putting more money in people’s pockets to spend on goods.

`“A minimum of $15 for entry jobs means fewer people get them, can’t be socialized to working culture, and results in more — not less — poverty,” said Schramm, citing economist E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and president of the Empire Center for Public Policy.

“There is a food desert in every central city,” Schramm said. “Instituting an above-market minimum wage will have the eventual effect of shutting the market.”

Karen O’Shea, a spokeswoman for Wakefern Food Corporation, which owns PriceRite, said in a statement last month that Wakefern “can’t speculate on what may happen in the future with regard to the minimum wage proposal.” She added that the company recognizes employee contributions through “competitive wages” and other incentives.

The PriceRite grocery store will be located at 601 South Ave.

 

 

— Article by Justin Mattingly, Newhouse Urban Affairs reporter