Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign an executive order implementing a massive expansion of the city’s living wage law Tuesday, increasing the hourly rate from $11.90 to $13.13, according to a report.
The order will have an immediate effect on employees working on commercial projects that have received more than $1 million in subsidies from the city, The New York Times reported.
Under the new plan, the living wage law will be changed to include workers employed by businesses located in properties that get the subsides. The change is expected to boost the number of workers covered by the law from 1,200 to 18,000, the report said.
If the companies provide the workers with health insurance, the hourly wage will be raised from $10.30 to $11.50.
The mayor is on a crusade in Albany to get the power to boost the minimum wage in the city.
The paper said the mayor hopes to increase the minimum wage for all workers to more than $15 an hour by 2019.
“We cannot continue to allow rampant and growing income inequality,” de Blasio told the Times on Monday.
“Every tool counts. If we reach 18,000 families with this tool and get them to a decent standard of living, that’s a game-changer for those families.”
The living wage law was passed in 2012.
The living wage change is expected to have a major effect on fast-food and retail workers, who toil for the state’s minimum wage of $8 an hour.
The change is expected to apply to more than 4,000 workers in that field over the next five years, the Times said.
For such workers, the change will increase annual income by about $10,000.
De Blasio is seeking a more expansive increase in the minimum wage citywide, the paper said, and he is helping fellow Democrats get elected to the state Senate to achieve this goal.
But de Blasio will likely face an uphill battle in Albany, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is resistant to the idea.
In the past, Cuomo has said that allowing cities to set their own minimum wages would create “a chaotic situation.”
But the governor later agreed to support a plan that allows cities with higher costs of living, such as New York, to set their own minimum wages.
The mayor said he is seeking to overhaul the system and address problems of inequality and poverty.
“We originally anticipated building more narrowly upon the previous legislation,” de Blasio told the Times. “When we looked closely, we decided we needed to do a bigger overhaul.”
The mayor has also pushed the expansion of paid sick leave and a long-term plan to build more affordable housing.