Tessa Sheehy works full time as an office assistant for the New York State Department of Labor but lives at home with her mother because she does not earn enough to move out.þþMs. Sheehy, 23, is paid $13.82 an hour. After taxes and deductions, she is left with about $1,450 a month to pay her student loan, car payment and insurance, and help her mother with rent, buy food and take care of emergencies like replacing a car battery that recently died.þþ“I can barely afford to live with my mom with my bills,” she said. “If I tried to get an apartment, I would never be able to afford it on my own.þþGov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a plan on Tuesday to raise the minimum wage to $15 for all state workers.Cuomo to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All New York State EmployeesNOV. 10, 2015þBut help is coming for Ms. Sheehy under a plan announced last week by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, to unilaterally establish a $15 hourly minimum wage for all state workers. The governor’s plan is expected to gradually increase salaries for about 10,000 public workers, or about 6.5 percent of the state’s full-time and seasonal work force. The pay would reach $15 by the end of 2018 for those living in New York City because of its higher cost of living, and by the end of 2021 for those in the rest of the state, according to administration officials.þþThe governor’s action highlights his larger efforts to increase the statewide minimum wage for all workers, in both the public and private sectors, to $15 an hour from the current rate of $8.75, which would require the approval of the State Legislature. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. It also comes amid a national movement by fast-food workers to receive a $15 minimum hourly wage. In New York State, fast-food workers are already set to make that as a result of a recommendation by a state panel known as the wage board, which Mr. Cuomo commissioned to investigate the fast-food industry.þþNew York is the first state to increase the minimum wage for its public employees to $15 an hour, though several cities, including Syracuse, have taken similar action for their municipal workers. Mr. Cuomo, speaking at a rally last week, said the state was “going to lead by example,” adding, “We are going to establish a public sector minimum wage, and we are going to start in our own house and every employee of the state.”þþPaul Sonn, a general counsel for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization based in New York City, said Mr. Cuomo’s plan was significant because it would “create momentum for more governors to act.” And, he added, it could also put pressure on President Obama to use executive power to create a $15 an hour minimum wage for employees of federal contractors.þþFor New York workers, the benefits may mean more money for food and clothing and, perhaps, less worry that their personal checks might bounce.þþStephen Madarasz, a spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, a union that represents nearly 300,000 workers statewide, said that though the majority of its members already make more than $15 an hour, there were significant numbers of workers who did not.þþ“Many of these people struggle from paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet,” Mr. Madarasz said. “They’re working very hard, and not really seeing the fruits of their labor.”þþMary Jane Tubridy, 56, for example, earns $10.16 an hour after working for five years as an aide at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. “It’s hard to live on Long Island with that amount,” she said.þþMs. Tubridy said she welcomed the wage increase — which will bring her an additional $619 a month — as a way to help offset increases in her living expenses, such as higher school and property taxes, and allow her to build up her savings.þþMichael Reckner, 24, will make an extra $1.50 an hour — for a total increase of $240 a month — at his job loading and unloading drywall and keeping track of building materials as a storeroom clerk at the state’s Office of General Services in Albany. “It’s not a huge difference, but that’s a tank of gas right there that could get me back and forth to work for two weeks,” he said. “That could be a night out, or a nice dinner. That’s a prime rib sitting on your plate.”þþMr. Reckner, who has worked for the agency since 2013, said that while he manages to live on his current salary, it could be difficult. After taxes and deductions, he is left with about $1,200 a month. About two-thirds of that goes toward rent, car payments and insurance. The remainder must pay for everything else.þþ“It’s a lot of preplanning and making sure your budget is down pat,” he said.þþEven with careful budgeting, Ms. Sheehy, the office assistant, has to juggle bills. She runs out of money almost every month and has to borrow from her mother or try to eke out savings by cutting back on lunches. She also picks up shifts as a part-time security guard at a local television station to supplement her income.þþ“If I made enough, I would not work this much,” she said. “I don’t have time for a life.”þþMs. Sheehy said the wage increase would mean an extra $177 a month, or enough to cover her student loan payment, and then some. Ms. Sheehy said she also hoped to save enough tuition money to finish at Schenectady County Community College, where she is studying criminal justice.þþ“When you don’t have enough as it is, every little thing can help,” she said.þþ
Source: NY Times
