By Andrew Wilkes
Huffington Post, June 1, 2012

Governor Cuomo has an opportunity to exercise economic leadership on behalf of the Empire State's most vulnerable families. Despite his characterizations, raising the state's minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 can and should be done. According to a recent Siena College poll, 79 percent of New York State voters share this sentiment. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver champions an increased minimum wage. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos opposes it. Governor Cuomo, then, is the difference maker. Given his political capital, deal-making abilit, and high approval rating, Albany's chief...

By Rod Watson
Buffalo News, May 31, 2012

From the “you can’t make this stuff up” department:

The State Senate’s Republican leader opposes hiking New York’s minimum wage because paying workers more means they’d lose some government benefits.

Really. That’s among Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ objections to the idea that New Yorkers be able to lift themselves out of poverty by working hard. ...

The public knows that, as evidenced by Wednesday’s Quinnipiac University poll showing wide support for the higher wage floor. Some Buffalo entrepreneurs know it, too.

Business issues are “much bigger than...

A late push for higher state wage

By Marlene Kennedy
Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY), May 31, 2012

With less than a month left in the 2012 legislative session, there’s a good chance a higher minimum wage won’t become law in New York anytime soon.

That didn’t dissuade business owners and advocates from holding a conference call with reporters last week to talk up their support for raising the state’s base wage for hourly workers. “This is something whose time is past due,” said Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of...

By Martin Rothenberg
Opinion Today, Syracuse Post-Standard, May 31, 2012

I have been a small business owner in Syracuse since 1991. My first company, Syracuse Language Systems, developed and sold multimedia software, and grew from a start-up with a few employees to 120 employees when it was sold. My present company, Glottal Enterprises, makes medical electronics for speech and voice diagnosis and correction that is sold worldwide. It presently has five employees, but we are growing.

Neither company has ever seen fit to pay only the minimum wage. As I found out quickly at Syracuse...

By Vera H-C Chan
Trending Now, Yahoo News, May 30, 2012 

What does $7.25 an hour get you?

These days, barely two gallons of gas. You'd probably have to work 30 minutes to enjoy a tall Frappuccino (maybe more if prices keep going up), although that's an indulgence when a box of diapers would cost about two hours of labor.

As the economy slowly rebuilds itself, talk about raising the minimum wage is, well, on the rise, and it has taken on more urgency in cities, states, and at the national level:

…

And while...

Op-Ed by Holly Sklar
Distributed in Mass. by American Forum, May 30, 2012: Fall River Herald News, Taunton Daily Gazette, Attleboro Sun Chronicle, Medfield Press, Providence Journal, more. 

Massachusetts led the nation when it passed the first state minimum wage law a hundred years ago on June 4, 1912. Today, it is a laggard.

Our state minimum wage has been stuck at $8 an hour since 2008. That’s less than the $8.46 value of the 1956 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation – and way below its peak value of $10.58 in 1968. Today, Massachusetts has...

By Jeremy Moule
Rochester City Newspaper, May 30, 2012

Say you’re working 40 hours a week for minimum wage, which in New York is $7.25 an hour. Before taxes, your Social Security contribution, and other deductions, you’re making about $290 a week. That’s $15,080 a year.

Now, consider this: the federal poverty level for a single person is $11,070. For one adult with one child, the level is $15,130. So if you’re making minimum wage, you are at or near the poverty threshold. And critics say that those standards underestimate, often substantially, what it takes...

La Hispana Tribuna USA, May 29, 2012
Long Island, New York City

En una propuesta poco usual, líderes empresariales a través del estado de Nueva York hicieron un llamado al Gobernador Andrew Cuomo y al Senado estatal para que apoyen el aumento del salario mínimo, que fue aprobado recientemente en la Asamblea Estatal.

La cadena de grandes almacenes Costco, la Cámara de Comercio de la Gran Nueva York,  Eileen Fisher, HopStop, ABC Home, Buffalo First, Syracuse First, la American Sustainable Business Council y más de 200 dueños de pequeñas empresas del estado, firmaron una declaración...

Editorial
Syracuse Post-Standard, May 29, 2012

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave up on the minimum wage hike last week. He was premature.

Though he likes the proposed increase from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour, indexed to inflation in the future — and though the Assembly easily passed the measure, championed by Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan — Cuomo acknowledges the state Senate is the obstacle. ...

But if the opinion of voters — including business leaders — matters, Cuomo and Senate friends should reconsider.

New York voters want a minimum wage hike. A...

Column By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Washington Post, May 29, 2012

The federal minimum wage is now $7.25 cents an hour, about $15,080 for a full time, year round worker. At that level, it means poverty wages for a family of three, and weakened demand for the economy. As Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and New York’s bishops concluded, this leaves workers “on the brink of homelessness, with not enough in their paychecks to pay for the most basic of necessities, like food, medicine or clothing for their children.” ...

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that the...

Public News Service, May 29, 2012

NEW YORK - With the unofficial start of summer, some local advocates for workers are turning up the heat on the New York State Senate on the issue of raising New York's minimum wage. The Assembly has already passed a measure that would increase the minimum wage to $8.50 per hour.

Karina Claudio, lead organizer of the group "Make the Road New York," says it's time for the Senate to act as well. Just prior to the long weekend, she marched with about 30 workers, clergy members and community...

Associated Press
Wall Street Journal, more, May 28, 2012

ALBANY—Advocates including the Occupy Albany movement and clergy pushing New York's proposal to raise the minimum wage are gearing up for the final four weeks of the legislative session. ...

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, is trying to turn overwhelming support in polls—even more than half of Republicans voters support raising the wage—into a tool to persuade GOP senators to support the measure.

Mr. Cuomo has said that he wants a higher minimum wage but that political passage is "not in the realm of...

By Amanda Verrette
Legislative Gazette, May 25, 2012

Even though Gov. Andrew Cuomo has acknowledged the contentious minimum wage debate will likely not be resolved this legislative session, supporters of a $1.25-an-hour increase remain optimistic and continued to push for the measure late last week. More than 200 business owners and executives have signed on to a Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Statement, calling on the governor and the Senate to pass legislation to increase the state's minimum wage.

"We wouldn't be wasting our time if we thought it was a done deal," said...

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, May 25, 2012

A report Thursday said 880,000 workers in New York — 61,000 of them in the nine-county Rochester area — would have higher incomes if the minimum wage were increased, representing about 10 percent of all workers in the state. ...

However, some business leaders indicated Thursday they support a minimum wage increase. Costco and the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce were among companies and organizations that signed a statement supporting an increase.

“At Costco, we know good wages are good business,” Jeff Long, a company vice president...

Associated Press, May 25, 2012

ALBANY, N.Y — Advocates for the poor are getting help from some business operators in their quest to raise the minimum wage.

Costco and small business operators statewide called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Senate's Republican majority to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour.

The bill is sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

But the Senate's Republican majority calls it a job killer.

A Costco executive said Thursday that the retailer pays a starting wage of $11 an hour and good wages are good business...