Through a Spanish interpreter, she said, “Housekeeping is not a simple job in general. It’s a job that will exhaust you considerably.
Ms. Garcia expressed her hope that New York will soon increase. Its minimum wage to at least $20 per hour. So she won’t have to choose between paying her rent and putting food on the table.
A growing movement to better the lives of low-wage workers was spearheaded by New York ten years ago. The “Fight for 15” campaign started in 2012 when workers in dozens of restaurants. Across the city staged walkouts to demand $15 per hour wages and the right to organize.
These demands at first seemed absurd but with the support of the reliable Service Employees International Union. The New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council sparked a proposal to raise. The city’s hourly minimum wage is from $9 to $9 for the majority of workers to $15 in just three years.
Paul K. Sonn, government Manager of programs and policy at the National Employment Law Project, which aids low-wage workers, said that the $15 minimum wage was a “bold, significant step toward moving closer to a living wage.” But right now, he continued, “the New York minimum wage is falling far, far behind due to the highest inflation in 40 years.”
This year, consumer prices increased at a painful rate many Americans had never seen. For the twelve months that ended in September, the official national inflation rate was 8.2 percent. Because city dwellers are less affected by high gas prices, it was lower in the New York metro area (6.2%).
Also read: NYC minimum wage workers must put in 100+ hours a week to make ends meet.
Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the New York State Business Council, noted that because employers’ expenses are rising, they typically oppose mandatory wage increases. According to Mr. Pokalsky, a rise would be counterproductive because “it directly affects sectors like hospitality, which still struggle to recover from the pandemic’s effects.”
