By:Jerry Burke
The vote in the State Assembly was 129-19 in favor of the override. Alfano, the sole Nassau County representative on the Assembly Labor committee, voted to move the bill to the floor of the Assembly. "The current minimum wage is not enough for a family to survive on in today's world," said Alfano adding. "This increase is needed to keep pace with inflation, and to help working families and seniors."
Under the legislation passed last month, New York's minimum wage would be raised to $6.00 per hour by January 1, 2005; to $6.75 per hour by January 1, 2006; and to $7.15 per hour by January 1, 2007. Food Service workers receiving tips also would receive yearly wage increases under the backed measure. The tip minimum wage would climb from the current $3.30 to $3.85 per hour on January 1, 2005; $4.35 on January 1, 2006; and $4.60 on January 1, 2007.
Larry Deangelis, Co-Chair of the Nassau County Working Families Party, supported the override, saying "Congratulations to the State Assembly for fixing the Governor's mistake and overriding his deplorable veto of the minimum wage increase."
The override's fate now lies with the Republican-majority state senate, but insiders in Albany believe they will let the issue lie until after the Republican National Convention as not to "embarrass" Pataki with a such a reversal as his party comes to town.
"Now we're counting on the Senate to do the right thing too." Deangelis added. "Working families around the state have told their state Senators how important raising the minimum wage is. We hope they're listening."
The minimum wage has not increased in New York since March of 2000. The minimum wage bill would raise wages to levels consistent with neighboring states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Alfano also pointed to a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute that found that 68 percent of the workers who would directly benefit from a wage increase are adults. In addition, women account for 60 percent of those earning less than $7.25 an hour and, of those, almost half have children.
Alfano also pointed out that nine of the 12 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal level had better employment growth in 2003 than New York. In addition, those 12 states had an average unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in June of the year - lower than New York's 6.2 percent.
Between 1998 and 2001, those 12 states with a higher minimum wage also saw the number of small businesses grow by 3.1 percent - nearly twice the 1.6 percent for the remaining states.
