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The Justice

by:

Will Be Served! Campaign

Sponsored

Chinese Staff & Workers Assn. National Mobilization Against Sweatshops 318 Restaurant Workers Union

For immediate release April 2, 2013

For more information, please contact: JoAnn Lum (212) 358-0295

Cuomos Minimum Wage Law Treats Tipped Employees as Second-Class Low-Wage Workers, Labor Groups, and Advocacy Organizations Demand Real Minimum Wage, Not Corporate Welfare

What: When: Where:

Press Conference Today, Tuesday, April 2, 12 noon In front of Governor Cuomos Office, 633 3rd Ave. (40 41 St.), Manhattan

Low-wage workers, labor groups and advocacy organizations are holding a press conference Tuesday in front of Governor Cuomos office to denounce his new minimum-wage law passed last Thursday. The law will enrich employers and corporations to the detriment of all working people. Instead of raising the minimum wage to an amount workers can live on, the law only raises the minimum wage to $9 per hour over a three year period this amount is far less than historical minimum wages adjusted for inflation. We are here today to say, Cuomo, we dont want your minimum-wage bill! Sarah Ahn of the Justice Will Be Served Campaign said. This bill that will raise the minimum wage to a measly $9 by 2016 is a slap in the face to working people in New York State. It is too little, too late. The law also discriminates against tipped workers, excluding hundreds of thousands of tipped workers who are predominately women and people of color from an increase. For these workers, no increase in wages coupled with an increase in the cost of living means a pay cut. "Unfortunately, the deal struck behind closed doors at the Capitol keeps the minimum wage as a subpoverty wage, while giving tens of millions of tax dollars to subsidize some of the nation's largest and most profitable companies when they hire teenagers, said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS. Once again, tip workers are treated as second-class workers and are forced to wait months to see what type of raise the Governor and his Wage Board will approve. The law subsidizes corporations to hire young workers, encouraging employers to replace older workers with youth and to slash wages. With this new law, the government is robbing the poor to pay the rich. said Jaime Leon, representative of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, This is outrageous!

The Justice
by:

Will Be Served! Campaign

Sponsored

Chinese Staff & Workers Assn. National Mobilization Against Sweatshops 318 Restaurant Workers Union

Rather than giving a tax subsidy to corporations, Governor Cuomo should have ensured that the state dedicate more resources to the Department of Labor for enforcement of minimum wage and overtime laws. The Department of Labor desperately needs additional resources to protect low-wage workers from wage theft and to hold corporations accountable for labor-law violations. New Yorkers need our Governor to show some leadership on issues impacting low-wage workers, said David Colodny of the Urban Justice Center's Community Development Project. It is simply unacceptable for Albany to make a deal that leaves wages for tipped workers stagnant while the cost of living continues to rise. It is also unacceptable that Governor Cuomos Department of Labor is so underfunded that there is a two-year backlog of wage theft cases waiting to be investigated. Cuomo must do better on these issues. Low-wage workers, labor and advocacy groups call on Gov. Cuomo to take responsibility for passing this law that will actually bring down conditions for working people. They demand that Cuomo right this wrong by: increasing the minimum wage to at least $10/hour, indexed to inflation increase wages for tipped workers along with other workers put resources into enforcement of labor laws, instead of giving millions to corporations in subsidies to hire youth to replace workers currently employed.

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