Biaggi, Yang stand up for better tipped employee wages

Alessandra Biaggi

Originally published in The Riverdale Press

When you share your stories, it informs the way that we legislate, and it informs the way that policy is designed,” the senator said. “A lot of people don’t think about politics when they think about their lives, but there is not a thing that anybody does that doesn’t have an impact as a result of politics.”

It’s hard to get by on a tip wage in good times, let alone in a pandemic,” Biaggi said. “To hear that the benefits the state would be giving anybody would be $130 … to be able to approve that check, and think that this is a conscious and smart decision. While $130 is a great thing to have in your hands, it is unconscionable to think that someone could live on $130 a week.”

The business of the people is still in front of us, and we intend to fight very hard for all of these things,” Biaggi said.

To come out of this and have only a moratorium will mean that the months we missed rent on, or mortgage payments on, will be tacked on to the end,” the senator said. “During a moment where people are not making an income, it seems impossible that that would be something that would be helpful for New Yorkers.”