S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                  1978--A
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 17, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  RAMOS,  BAILEY,  BRISPORT, BROUK, CLEARE, COMRIE,
   COONEY, GONZALEZ, GOUNARDES, HOYLMAN-SIGAL, JACKSON, KAVANAGH,  KRUEG-
   ER,  MYRIE, PARKER, RIVERA, SALAZAR -- read twice and ordered printed,
   and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor --  commit-
   tee  discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
   mitted to said committee
 
 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:
 
   Section  1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "raise the
 wage act".
   § 2. Legislative findings. As New Yorkers struggle  with  the  rapidly
 rising  cost  of  living,  their paychecks are not keeping up. The state
 minimum wage has been flat at $15 in New York city since  2019.  In  the
 New  York  city  suburbs it is also stalled at $15 and under current law
 will not increase further. And in the rest of the state, years after the
 legislature last acted to raise the minimum wage it is  still  gradually
 inching  up  to $15, but will not increase further until the legislature
 acts.
   At the same time, record inflation is causing the real  value  of  the
 minimum  wage to plummet across the state as consumers struggle with the
 rapidly rising cost of necessities. In New  York  city,  its  value  has
 already  fallen more than 15%, and is projected to fall a further 15% by
 2027, or even more if consumer price inflation does not moderate in 2023
 and 2024 as expected. This steep decline in the minimum wage is  revers-
 ing  the historic reductions in poverty and earnings inequality that the
 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.
                                                            LBD04134-02-3
 S. 1978--A                          2
              

 
 returns to more typical levels, workers will continue to lose real wages
 as long as our minimum wage remains stagnant.
   While  in  2016  New York led the nation as the first state to adopt a
 $15 minimum wage, today it has fallen behind the many other  cities  and
 states that are raising their minimum wages well beyond $15. About fifty
 cities  and counties and two states will have minimum wages above $15 an
 hour as of January 2023, and a growing group will have minimum wages  of
 more  than $17 or $18 an hour. The fact that Yakima, Washington, Fresno,
 California, and Denver, Colorado will all have higher minimum wages than
 New York shows how far pay has fallen in the state.
   To fix this, first, the value of New York city's minimum wage needs to
 be restored by "catching it up" to where it would have been  if  it  had
 been  adjusted  steadily  each  year since 2019 to keep pace with rising
 prices and workforce productivity. That translates to raising the  mini-
 mum wage to $21.25 an hour by 2026.
   Second,  because  the  state  minimum wage in New York city's suburbs,
 including Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, is also stalled  at
 $15  and  those regions have housing and living costs that are almost as
 high as New York city, the minimum wage there  should  increase  at  the
 same rate.
   Third,  the  minimum  wage  in  the remainder of the state should also
 eventually catch up with the state-wide rate, but at a slower pace since
 wages and costs are lower there.
   Finally, once the minimum wage across the state catches up, it must be
 automatically adjusted or "indexed" each year so that  it  doesn't  fall
 behind  again.  That is the approach that 18 states and Washington, D.C.
 are already using to keep their minimum wages up to date. For  adjusting
 the minimum wage each year, the legislature should adopt the same formu-
 la  that  the  department  of  labor and the division of the budget used
 successfully to increase New York's upstate minimum  wage  in  2022  and
 2023. They have been adjusting the minimum wage so that it keeps up both
 with  rising  prices and also with any increases in worker productivity.
 This best practice ensures that underpaid  workers'  paychecks  maintain
 their  purchasing power and, that when there are gains in worker produc-
 tivity, that workers too share in  those  benefits.  This  approach  has
 resulted  in  steady, moderate increases in the upstate wage of 70 cents
 in 2022, and $1.00 in 2023. It should be  made  permanent  and  expanded
 state-wide.
   Many  of  our  lowest  paid  jobs across the state are publicly-funded
 human services jobs, in fields such as home care, childcare, and  mental
 health  care,  where  workers provide essential services on which we all
 rely. But the eroded minimum wage is holding down pay  for  these  vital
 caregivers  and making it impossible to fill these demanding jobs at the
 same time that demand for services has exploded  as  the  state's  popu-
 lation  ages  and the pandemic has stressed families and communities. To
 address this critical worker shortage, we need to  not  just  raise  the
 minimum wage significantly, but also to provide the state funding neces-
 sary  to  finance those raises in the state and city-contracted programs
 that employ these essential workers.
   New York's experience phasing in the  $15  minimum  wage  showed  that
 significant  wage  increases have been manageable for employers and that
 higher paychecks have put money back into  local  communities,  boosting
 consumer  spending  at  neighborhood  businesses. Studies by the federal
 reserve bank of New York of the impact in upstate counties, and  by  the
 New  York  city-based new school both found that New York's last minimum
 wage increase raised pay significantly without hurting employment - even
 S. 1978--A                          3
 
 in counties along the New York-Pennsylvania  border  where  the  minimum
 wage in our neighboring state is just $7.25.
   With the value of New York's minimum wage plummeting and rising prices
 squeezing  New  York's  working  families,  we  cannot afford to wait to
 restore a strong minimum wage for all New Yorkers.
   § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 652 of the  labor  law,  as  amended  by
 section  1  of  part  K of chapter 54 of the laws of 2016, is amended to
 read as follows:
   1. Statutory. Every employer shall pay to each of  its  employees  for
 each hour worked a wage of not less than:
   $4.25 on and after April 1, 1991,
   $5.15 on and after March 31, 2000,
   $6.00 on and after January 1, 2005,
   $6.75 on and after January 1, 2006,
   $7.15 on and after January 1, 2007,
   $8.00 on and after December 31, 2013,
   $8.75 on and after December 31, 2014,
   $9.00 on and after December 31, 2015, and until December 31, 2016, or,
 if  greater, such other wage as may be established by federal law pursu-
 ant to 29 U.S.C. section 206 or its successors or such other wage as may
 be established in accordance with the provisions of this article.
   (a) New York City. [(i) Large employers.] Every employer [of eleven or
 more employees] shall pay to each of its employees for each hour  worked
 in the city of New York a wage of not less than:
   $11.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2016,
   $13.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2017,
   $15.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2018,
   $17.25 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2024,
   $19.25 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2025,
   $21.25  ON  AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2026, or, if greater, such other wage
 as may be established by federal law pursuant to 29 U.S.C.  section  206
 or its successors or such other wage as may be established in accordance
 with the provisions of this article.
   [(ii)  Small  employers. Every employer of ten or less employees shall
 pay to each of its employees for each hour worked in  the  city  of  New
 York a wage of not less than:
   $10.50 per hour on and after December 31, 2016,
   $12.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2017,
   $13.50 per hour on and after December 31, 2018,
   $15.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2019,
   or,  if  greater, such other wage as may be established by federal law
 pursuant to 29 U.S.C.  section 206 or its successors or such other  wage
 as  may  be  established in accordance with the provisions of this arti-
 cle.]
   (b) Remainder of downstate. Every employer shall pay to  each  of  its
 employees  for  each  hour worked in the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and
 Westchester a wage not less than:
   $10.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2016,
   $11.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2017,
   $12.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2018,
   $13.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2019,
   $14.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2020,
   $15.00 per hour on and after December 31, 2021,
   $17.25 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2024,
   $19.25 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2025,
   $21.25 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2026,
 S. 1978--A                          4
 
   or, if greater, such other wage as may be established by  federal  law
 pursuant  to  29 U.S.C. section 206 or its successors or such other wage
 as may be established in accordance with the provisions of this article.
   (c)  Remainder  of  state.  Every  employer  shall  pay to each of its
 employees for each hour worked outside of the city of New York  and  the
 counties of Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester, a wage of not less than:
   $9.70 on and after December 31, 2016,
   $10.40 on and after December 31, 2017,
   $11.10 on and after December 31, 2018,
   $11.80 on and after December 31, 2019,
   $12.50 on and after December 31, 2020,
   [and  on each following December thirty-first, a wage published by the
 commissioner on or before October first, based on the then current mini-
 mum wage increased by a percentage determined by  the  director  of  the
 budget in consultation with the commissioner, with the result rounded to
 the nearest five cents, totaling no more than fifteen dollars, where the
 percentage increase shall be based on indices including, but not limited
 to,  (i)  the  rate of inflation for the most recent twelve month period
 ending June of that year based on the consumer price index for all urban
 consumers on a national and seasonally unadjusted basis  (CPI-U),  or  a
 successor  index as calculated by the United States department of labor,
 (ii) the rate of state personal income growth  for  the  prior  calendar
 year, or a successor index, published by the bureau of economic analysis
 of the United States department of commerce, or (iii) wage growth;]
   $13.20 ON AND AFTER DECEMBER 31, 2021,
   $14.20 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2023,
   $16.00 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2024,
   $18.00 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2025,
   $20.00 ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1, 2026,
   or,  if  greater, such other wage as may be established by federal law
 pursuant to 29 U.S.C. section 206 or its successors or such  other  wage
 as may be established in accordance with the provisions of this article.
   (d) ANNUAL INCREASES. ON JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SEVEN, AND
 ON  EACH FOLLOWING JANUARY FIRST, THE WAGES SET FORTH IN PARAGRAPHS (A),
 (B) AND (C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION  AND  ANY  OTHER  WAGES  ESTABLISHED  IN
 ACCORDANCE  WITH  THE  PROVISIONS  OF  THIS CHAPTER AND SET FORTH IN ANY
 MINIMUM WAGE ORDER, SHALL BE THE WAGES  PUBLISHED  BY  THE  COMMISSIONER
 PURSUANT TO THIS PARAGRAPH. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL PUBLISH SUCH WAGES ON
 OR  BEFORE OCTOBER FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX, AND ON EACH FOLLOWING
 OCTOBER FIRST. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL BASE EACH SUCH PUBLISHED  WAGE  ON
 EACH  THEN  CURRENT  WAGE  INCREASED  BY  THE  SUM  OF:  (I) THE RATE OF
 INFLATION, IF GREATER THAN ZERO, AS MEASURED BY THE CHANGE IN THE  AVER-
 AGE  FOR  THE  TWELVE MONTHS THROUGH JUNE OF THE CURRENT YEAR DIVIDED BY
 THE AVERAGE FOR THE TWELVE MONTHS THROUGH JUNE OF THE PRECEDING YEAR  IN
 THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR ALL URBAN WAGE EARNERS AND CLERICAL WORKERS
 ON  A  NATIONAL  AND SEASONALLY UNADJUSTED BASIS (CPI-W), OR A SUCCESSOR
 INDEX, AS CALCULATED BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; AND  (II)
 LABOR  PRODUCTIVITY  GROWTH,  IF  GREATER  THAN ZERO, AS MEASURED BY THE
 CHANGE IN THE AVERAGE QUARTERLY INDEX FOR THE FOUR QUARTERS THROUGH  THE
 SECOND  QUARTER  OF  THE  CURRENT  YEAR DIVIDED BY THE AVERAGE QUARTERLY
 INDEX FOR THE FOUR QUARTERS THROUGH THE SECOND QUARTER OF THE  PRECEDING
 YEAR  IN  NATIONAL  LABOR PRODUCTIVITY (OUTPUT PER HOUR) OF ALL EMPLOYED
 PERSONS IN THE NONFARM BUSINESS SECTOR, OR A SUCCESSOR INDEX, AS  CALCU-
 LATED  BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, WITH THE SUM ROUNDED TO
 THE NEAREST MULTIPLE OF FIVE CENTS. THE COMMISSIONER SHALL PUBLISH  SUCH
 WAGES  ON  OR  BEFORE  OCTOBER FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX, AND ON OR
 S. 1978--A                          5
 
 BEFORE EACH FOLLOWING OCTOBER FIRST.  PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT  THE  WAGE
 SET  FORTH  FOR  PARAGRAPH (C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION THAT THE COMMISSIONER
 PUBLISHES ON OR BEFORE OCTOBER FIRST, TWO THOUSAND  TWENTY-SIX  TO  TAKE
 EFFECT  ON JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SEVEN SHALL BE A WAGE THAT
 IS EQUAL TO THE WAGE THAT THE COMMISSIONER PUBLISHES TO TAKE  EFFECT  ON
 JANUARY  FIRST,  TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SEVEN FOR PARAGRAPHS (A) AND (B) OF
 THIS SUBDIVISION. THEREAFTER, BEGINNING WITH THE WAGE THAT  THE  COMMIS-
 SIONER  PUBLISHES  FOR  PARAGRAPH  (C)  OF THIS SUBDIVISION ON OR BEFORE
 OCTOBER FIRST, TWO THOUSAND  TWENTY-SEVEN  TO  TAKE  EFFECT  ON  JANUARY
 FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-EIGHT, AND THAT THE COMMISSIONER PUBLISHES ON
 OR  BEFORE EACH FOLLOWING OCTOBER FIRST TO TAKE EFFECT ON EACH FOLLOWING
 JANUARY FIRST, THE COMMISSIONER SHALL ADJUST THE CURRENT WAGE FOR  PARA-
 GRAPH  (C) OF THIS SUBDIVISION USING THE FORMULA SPECIFIED ABOVE IN THIS
 PARAGRAPH. FOR  PURPOSES  OF  SUBDIVISION  TWO  OF  THIS  SECTION,  EACH
 PUBLISHED  WAGE  THAT  INCREASES EACH THEN CURRENT MINIMUM WAGE SHALL BE
 DEEMED TO BE AN INCREASE IN HOURLY MINIMUM  WAGE  AS  PROVIDED  IN  THIS
 SUBDIVISION.
   (E) The rates and schedules established [in paragraphs (a) and (b) of]
 UNDER  this  subdivision  FOR NEW YORK CITY AND FOR NASSAU, SUFFOLK, AND
 WESTCHESTER COUNTIES shall not be deemed to be the  minimum  wage  under
 this  subdivision for purposes of the calculations specified in subdivi-
 sions one and two of section five hundred twenty-seven of this chapter.
   § 4. Subdivision 6 of section 652 of the labor law is REPEALED.
   § 5. Section 665 of the labor law is renumbered section 669 and a  new
 section 665 is added to read as follows:
   §  665. LOCAL WAGE ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY.  A CITY WITH A POPULATION OF
 ONE MILLION OR MORE, ACTING THROUGH ITS  COMPTROLLER,  MAY  ENFORCE  AND
 INVESTIGATE  VIOLATIONS  OF  THE  STATE  MINIMUM  WAGE, OTHER STATE WAGE
 REQUIREMENTS ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO THIS ARTICLE, AND ANY  OTHER  LOCAL
 LAW,  ORDINANCE,  OR  REGULATION  REQUIRING PAYMENT OF A MINIMUM WAGE OR
 COMPENSATION, OR ESTABLISHING A LABOR STANDARD FOR WORK PERFORMED WITHIN
 THE CITY'S GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES. THE COMPTROLLER SHALL BE EMPOWERED  TO
 ADOPT  FURTHER  ENFORCEMENT  PROVISIONS,  REMEDIES, PENALTIES, AND OTHER
 IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS. PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THE COMMISSIONER OF CONSUM-
 ER AND WORKER PROTECTION OF SUCH A CITY OR ANY SUCCESSOR TO SUCH  OFFICE
 MAY  ALSO  ENFORCE  AND INVESTIGATE VIOLATIONS OF THE STATE MINIMUM WAGE
 AND OTHER STATE WAGE REQUIREMENTS ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO  THIS  ARTICLE
 IN  THE COURSE OF ENFORCING OTHER LAWS THAT SUCH COMMISSIONER IS CHARGED
 WITH ENFORCING AND MAY  ORDER  ANY  AUTHORIZED  REMEDIES  OR  PENALTIES.
 PROVIDED,  FURTHER, NOTHING IN THIS SECTION SHALL LIMIT THE AUTHORITY OF
 THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OR ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCY  TO  ENFORCE  THE
 STATE  MINIMUM WAGE AND OTHER STATE WAGE REQUIREMENTS ESTABLISHED PURSU-
 ANT TO THIS ARTICLE OR ANY OTHER LAW WITHIN THE GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES OF
 A CITY WITH A POPULATION OF ONE MILLION OR MORE OR ELSEWHERE.
   § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.