In the News: Women Leaders Pen Letter to Cuomo, Ask Him to Support Local Wage Standards (Source: Legislative Gazette)

In a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature, 130 of the state's most powerful women urged the passage of #RaiseUpNY, legislation that would allow cities and counties to raise wages above the state's minimum of $8 an hour.

The #RaiseUpNY bill (S.6516/A.9036) is a plan to allow individual cities and counties within the state to set their own minimum wage, based on factors such as cost of living. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo has criticized the plan saying it would create a chaotic situation throughout the state by pitting cities and counties against each other.

"Failing to adequately raise the minimum wage has hampered our state's economic growth and kept over 1.1 million hard working New Yorker's in poverty," said Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, who sponsors the bill. "A majority of minimum wage earners are women, many of whom are desperately trying to provide for their families and make ends meet."

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