Siena Poll Shows Strong Support For Raising Minimum Wage To $15 In New York
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- According to a newly released poll, New Yorkers are in strong support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The survey conducted by Siena College found that 59 percent of respondents support an across-the-board $15 minimum wage, while 38 percent oppose it.
Earlier this month, the Cuomo administration approved a plan to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 for workers at large fast-food chain restaurants in the state. On the same day, Cuomo announced he will push raising the wage for all workers to the same level over several years.
Currently, the minimum wage is $8.75 and is set to rise to $9 at year's end.
"There is strong overall support from voters for the governor's proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15,'' said Siena pollster Steven Greenberg. "However, there are wide partisan and geographic differences.''
Support for raising the minimum wage was highest among voters in the New York City area, Democrats and female voters, according to the survey. Nearly two-thirds of Republican respondents were opposed.
In the same poll, 50 percent of respondents gave Cuomo a favorable rating, compared with 42 percent who gave the governor an unfavorable review. That's largely unchanged from a Siena survey in July which pegged Cuomo's favorability rating at 49 percent and his unfavorability rating at 44 percent.
The Sept. 14-17 telephone survey included 817 registered voters from around the state. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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