Cuomo Announces Plan To Raise SUNY Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour
ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to raise the minimum wage for nearly 30,000 state university workers to $15.
The governor's plan would affect about 28,000 employees of the State University of New York system.
The state's base minimum wage rose from $8.75 to $9 on Thursday.
Cuomo wants to gradually raise the hourly wage to $15 for all workers, which would be the highest state wage in the nation.
"You can't make it on a minimum wage job," Cuomo said. "You need two, three, four minimum wage jobs to actually make it."
Union members gathered at the headquarters of Local 1199 SEIU, the powerful health care workers union, at a rally for minimum wage on Monday, where Cuomo spoke to the public on his new push, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported.
"If you had taken the minimum wage in 1970 and you had indexed it to inflation, you know what it would be today?" Cuomo said. "Fifteen dollars an hour."
State lawmakers are expected to debate that proposal during the 2016 session, which starts Wednesday in Albany.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)