NY Wage Board To Begin Consideration Of Fast Food Wage Hike

ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Fast food workers in New York are hoping recent minimum wage increases around the country prompt the state to increase their pay to $15 an hour.

On Tuesday the Los Angeles City Council endorsed a plan to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour.

New York's minimum wage is currently $8.75 an hour, but workers are hoping to change that.

Rallies were held in Buffalo, Albany and New York City on Wednesday to mark the first state wage board meeting that could bring them closer to that wage hike.

The meeting, convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was to consider raising the minimum wage for those in the fast food industry.

Efforts to raise the minimum wage for all workers are stalled in the state Legislature. Any increase recommended by the wage board must be ratified by Cuomo's labor secretary but doesn't need legislative approval.

"The promise of the minimum wage is not unlike that of the American Dream – if you work hard, you should be able to provide for your family and build a brighter future. Yet for tens of thousands of hardworking men and women in the fast food industry, that promise has been forsaken. When 60 percent of fast food workers in the Empire State have at least one family member on public assistance – the highest rate of any industry in our economy – it is clear that the minimum wage is not working.

"As we continue to fight for a higher minimum wage in Albany, I will not allow legislative inaction to hold us back. Today, let us send the message loud and clear: New York won't stop until we restore and preserve opportunity for all."

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