Bill Text: NY A06938 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires the commissioner of labor to prepare an annual report on the cost of living, poverty rates and adequacy of the current minimum wage in the state.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to labor [A06938 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A06938-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6938

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                       May 9, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. BURGOS -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Labor

        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to requiring the commissioner
          of  labor  to  prepare an annual report on the cost of living, poverty
          rates and adequacy of the current minimum wage in the state

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Section  21  of  the labor law is amended by adding a new
     2  subdivision 16 to read as follows:
     3    16. Shall prepare and submit to the governor, the temporary  president
     4  of  the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the chairs of the senate
     5  and assembly committees on labor on  or  before  the  thirtieth  day  of
     6  September an annual report on the state's cost of living, poverty rates,
     7  and  the  adequacy of the current minimum wage. The report shall analyze
     8  the change in living  costs  using  the  various  available  and  widely
     9  consulted  cost of living measures, including but not limited to the MIT
    10  living wage calculator,  the  EPI  family  budget  calculator,  and  the
    11  University  of  Washington  self-sufficiency  standard. The report shall
    12  also analyze changes in poverty and child poverty  for  households  that
    13  include  one  or  more workers, using American Community Survey data for
    14  the latest available year. Such analysis shall examine  changes  in  the
    15  specified  measures for each year since December thirty-first, two thou-
    16  sand eighteen, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability
    17  status, household size, profession and education level for each of  four
    18  regions  of  the state, which shall be defined as: the city of New York;
    19  the suburban counties of Westchester, Suffolk  and  Nassau;  the  Hudson
    20  Valley  counties  of Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Ulster, Greene, Dutchess,
    21  Columbia, Albany, and Rensselaer; and the counties of the  remainder  of
    22  the  state.  The  report  shall  also  compare the current and projected
    23  future value of the state's upstate minimum wage with the minimum  wages
    24  in  other  high-cost  states,  including  but not limited to Washington,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11116-02-3
        A. 6938                             2

     1  California and Hawaii, and compare  the  current  and  projected  future
     2  value of the state's minimum wage in the city of New York, and the coun-
     3  ties  of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk with the minimum wages in other
     4  high-cost  cities,  including but not limited to Seattle, San Francisco,
     5  Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The commissioner may  include
     6  in  the  report such other analysis as they find useful in assessing the
     7  adequacy of the state's minimum wage. In preparing the report and deter-
     8  mining its methodology, the commissioner shall consult with a three-per-
     9  son advisory committee, the  members  of  which  shall  consist  of  one
    10  appointee  each  by the governor, the temporary president of the senate,
    11  and the speaker of the assembly.
    12    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.