State workers in New York getting $15 minimum wage

NEW YORK - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is raising the minimum wage for about 10,000 state workers to $15 an hour over the next six years.

The governor's office says the move will initially affect about 1,000 office assistants, custodial workers and lifeguards in New York City, whose hourly wage will reach $15 by the end of 2018.

Another 9,000 employees upstate will see wages rise to that level three years later.

New York's basic minimum wage is now $8.75 and is set to rise to $9 at year's end.

The Democratic governor has called for a $15 basic minimum, which state Senate Republicans oppose.

A state wage board recently agreed to increase the minimum wage for chain fast-food workers in annual increments to $15 by the end of 2018 in New York City and for others by July 1, 2021.

Also on Tuesday, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order raising all city employees' minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2021.

Peduto's order doesn't raise the minimum wage of noncity employees who work in Pittsburgh, though it does call for City Council to draft legislation next year requiring city contractors to eventually pay their workers $15 hourly or face city-imposed penalties.

Under the mayor's order, the minimum wage for city workers will rise to $12.50 in 2017 and $13.75 in 2019 before hitting the $15-mark two years later.

Philadelphia Mayor-elect Jim Kenney, who takes office in January, wants to raise that city's minimum wage to $15, too.

So far, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and the California cities of Oakland and Berkeley have approved phased-in increases that eventually will take their minimum wage to $15 an hour, or about $31,200 a year.

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