Employees’ minimum wage to be increased by 2017-18 to $15

Employees’ minimum wage to be increased by 2017-18 to $15

The Bill passed by Labor and workforce development committee by a 4-2 vote in Beacon Hill would raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour.
 

Around 205,000 workers across the state would be affected including the workers at McDonalds, whereas the raise up Massachusetts group used to get only $10 an hour.
 

Sam Shaffrey of Long Island, N.Y. said that “When the minimum wage was established under President Roosevelt, it was established to be a living wage. Right now it’s not. Even people who work in fast food, it might not be their ideal job, but they deserve to have enough money to live on”.
 

Whereas, many people believed that “raise for one should be a raise for all” and that the fast food job was considered to be a stepping stone job to a better career.
 

Massachusetts passed a bill in 2014 to increase the minimum wage from $8 to $11 by 2017. Whereas, by 2017, the bill would raise the fast food wages to $13.50 an hour and by 2018 to $15.
 

Robert DeLeo, the House Speaker, believed that the bill won’t be put to vote before the end of the year.
 

Similarly, Oregon also agreed to raise its minimum wages for its home workers to $15. Even though they were private employees but often received public funds. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is the first Governor whose actions increased the mandatory hourly pay to at least $15 for the employees of its state. His action was a larger part to fight against poverty and economic inequality and criticized fast-food companies like McDonald’s for being culpable in “a scam on the taxpayers of this country”. These announcements received enthusiastic response from the labor leaders like George Gresham, the president of 1199 S.E.I.U., the nation’s largest health care workers union.
 

On the other hand, New York was the first state to set high wage for its public employees. Gov.  Cuomo announced that this increase would help the New York’s state employees to be placed ahead of other states in terms of minimum wages. Even though the wages of the state workers outside the city would also be increased but at slower pace that is by 2021.