Push for min wage of $21.25/hour

ALBANY, N.Y. — New Yorkers are pushing for legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $21.25 an hour by 2027. Currently the state’s minimum wage is set at $14.20 an hour, or in certain parts of the state, $15 an hour. In her State of the State Address, Governor Hochul said she wants to index wages  to match the rising cost of inflation, but advocates say they want to see an overall increase in the state’s minimum wage and then index it to match inflation. All of this happening just weeks after lawmakers voted in favor of a $32,000 pay raise for themselves.

“If we just index it without raising the minimum wage, we are codifying wages that are unsustainable for workers. We are codifying, starvation, wages for workers,” said Brahvan Ranga, Political Director of For the Many, an organization based in the Hudson Valley. Brahvan explained how the wage increase would work. “In upstate New York it will gradually raise it until, about $20 an hour in 2026, and then starting in 2027, it will be $21.25 across the state plus indexing it with inflation,” he said.