{"id":162402,"date":"2026-03-13T14:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162402\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:51:10","slug":"nyc-lawmakers-target-nations-highest-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162402\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Lawmakers Target Nation\u2019s Highest Minimum Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill introduced in the New York City Council would make the city\u2019s minimum wage the highest in the country, though it would still be below what some consider to be a living wage, The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> Thursday (March 12).<\/p>\n

The bill<\/a>, which was introduced Tuesday (March 10), would set the hourly minimum wage for employers with more than 500 employees at $30 by 2030 and for those with fewer than 500 employees at $29 by 2031, according to the website of the New York City Council.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s minimum wage is currently $17 per hour, according to the WSJ report.<\/p>\n

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Other cities whose minimum wages are among the country\u2019s highest include Seattle, at $21.30 per hour, and Los Angeles, whose minimum wage for hotel and airport workers will rise from $20.32 to $30 by 2028, the report said.<\/p>\n

If the New York City bill becomes law, the minimum wage would still fall short of what the Economic Policy Institute calculates to be a living wage in the city. While the organization says a single person needs an annual income of $83,262 for a living wage in the New York metro area, the bill\u2019s minimum wage would provide $62,400, per the report.<\/p>\n

One business owner interviewed by the WSJ said a wage increase would make it impossible for people to open new restaurants. Another, who owns five restaurants and a cocktail lounge, said he would have to cut a dozen jobs and require customers to place orders on their phones. A third business owner said the higher minimum wage would be fair and would help employers retain workers.<\/p>\n

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New York State Restaurant Association<\/a> President Melissa Fleischut<\/a> said in the article: \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re at a tipping point with consumers. There\u2019s only so much you can charge for a slice of pizza or a cheeseburger.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Council Member Carmen N. De La Rosa<\/a> said in a post<\/a> on X that the bill would ensure \u201cthe pockets of NYC\u2019s workforce match the reality of today\u2019s economy and rate of inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate New York City law requiring companies to offer grocery delivery workers the same minimum pay<\/a> that restaurant delivery workers are eligible for, went into effect in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bill introduced in the New York City Council would make the city\u2019s minimum wage the highest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3415,5130,12545,9,12,56,63,65,64,31826,821,18860,31827],"class_list":["post-162402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-jobs","tag-legislation","tag-minimum-wage","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-restaurants","tag-wages","tag-whats-hot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}