Fancy proposal to hike minimum wage up to $15 for fast food restaurant employees: New York

Much of the debate is made over the raise of minimum wage up to $15 per hour for the employees working at fast food chains. This relatively means that the operating cost for fast food outlets in New York will be a costly affair. The increase is noticeable as the current rate for these workers is $8.75 per hour. Besides, this proposal is supposed to be implemented in stages. The minimum wage for the workers would likely rise to $10.50 by the end of 2015, $12 by the end of 2016, $13.50 by the end of 2017 and $15 by the end of 2018. This rise would be more gradual and would finally reach $15 by 2021 for the rest of the states. In addition the said proposal would only apply to fast food chains with 30 or more chains.

The much precedent belief over raising minimum wage is that it probably reduces employment. Previous year’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report indicated that a hike in federal minimum wage structure would most likely cost about several jobs.

Seattle was the first to experiment with the hike based on a 1994 study for the state of New Jersey which affirmed that such hikes did not cause any negative impact to the employment. Moreover, such policies to raise minimum wages tend to suggest that these hikes will bring great benefits at minimum cost. Despite these favorable examples, the concern here is that the impact of this New York policy is certainly unpredictable. The reason behind this is a simple question as to whether large fast-food chains will pull out of upstate New York entirely, or will they be charging more. Another reason for this is the fact that a hike to minimum wages with this magnitude [from $8.75 per hour to $15 per hour] is little uncanny to foresee the outcome over consumers, workers and also the business owners.

The wage board’s proposal still needs a final approval from the state government before it goes into effect. Somehow New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also seems to encourage efforts to raise the minimum wage, which suggests the possibility of such proposal being implemented soon.