Board Undecided On Amount, Implementation Of Fast-Food Worker Pay Boost
On Monday, the three-member panel making up New York State’s Wage Board said it remained undecided on a specific pay increase for the state’s fast-food workers after its first deliberations. According to the Albany (NY) Times Union the board said it might “meet again later in the week or seek an extension of the nonbinding deadline of Saturday for a recommendation.” Wage Board chair and Buffalo, NY Mayor Byron Brown said, “There are (still) a lot of issues for us to talk about.” Monday’s meeting followed a month of public hearings across the state on the issue, with labor activists and fast-food workers urging a $15 per hour minimum wage. Thus far, the board decided in a “broad agreement that whatever the new wage ends up being, it probably won’t have a location differential,” meaning workers across the state will receive the same pay increase. Among the issues still unresolved is “how to define” the term “fast-food” so as to not “penalize mom-and-pop establishments without creating too many loopholes for the multinational chains that are the face of fast food.” New York State Restaurant Association President and CEO Melissa Fleischut in an email urged any pay increase to “be phased in over time” as is being done in cities like Seattle and Los Angeles.
What This Means For Small Businesses
Increased wages for the fast-food sector would place a huge burden on small business owners in the restaurant industry across New York. However, small businesses outside the restaurant industry may suffer as well due to increased pressure on businesses in all sectors to boost wages and benefits.
Additional Reading
Crain’s New York Business covered Monday’s Wage Board meeting, while the NFIB covered earlier public hearings on the issue.
Note: this article is intended to keep small business owners up on the latest news. It does not necessarily represent the policy stances of NFIB.
