On Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio will announce plans to raise the minimum wage for all city employees to $15 an hour by the end of 2018. The move is expected to boost the take-home pay of 50,000 city workers, at a cost of $202 million through 2020, according to the Daily News.
Although most of the city’s 300,000 employees already make more than $15 an hour, roughly 20,000 unionized workers — including crossing guards, preschool teachers, and custodians — make as little as $11.79. The new wage will also fatten the checks of 30,000 workers who provide city services through independent organizations like day-care centers.
The mayor’s announcement comes just days after his frenemy in Albany unveiled a public-sector wage increase of his own. On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all employees at state universities would see their base pay rise to $15 an hour by 2021. Cuomo had announced a similar plan for 10,000 state workers in November.
