The national wave toward raising the statutory minimum wage to $15.00/hour is going to have major consequences for the ailing national network of workers' compensation programs. Not only is it going to increase benefits for injured workers that are calculated on wages, but it is also going increase much needed premium dollars for insurance companies whose premiums are based on payroll costs.
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| NY Gov Andrew Cuomo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
How it happened is an interesting story authored by Steven Greenhouse in an article appearing in the NY Times:
"BACK in November 2012, when Alterique Hall, an $8-an-hour McDonald’s cashier in New York, joined 200 fast-food workers in the first one-day strike for the Fight for $15 campaign, many scoffed at their demand for $15 an hour as pie in the sky. Frustrated with his meager pay, Mr. Hall said, “It’s time for a change.”
"Three and a half years later, that change is starting to arrive. Last Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown of California announced a deal with state lawmakers to raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 — a move expected to lift pay for five million workers. And late Thursday Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York reached a deal with legislative leaders to adopt a $15 minimum wage in New York City in 2018 and in its suburbs in 2021, with a $12.50 minimum in upstate New York.
Calif. Gov Jerry Brown
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)“Once California and New York go, it is likely that more states will follow,” said Paul K. Sonn, general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers. (Shared from nytimes.com)
