Bill Text: NY S06646 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Requires the commissioner of labor to prepare an annual report on the cost of living, poverty rates and adequacy of the current minimum wage in the state.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-04-17 - referred to labor [S06646 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S06646-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6646

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                       May 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  RAMOS  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor

        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to requiring the commissioner
          of labor to prepare an annual report on the cost  of  living,  poverty
          rates and adequacy of the current minimum wage in the state

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 21 of the labor law is  amended  by  adding  a  new
     2  subdivision 16 to read as follows:
     3    16.  Shall prepare and submit to the governor, the temporary president
     4  of the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the chairs of the  senate
     5  and  assembly  committees  on  labor  on  or before the thirtieth day of
     6  September an annual report on the state's cost of living, poverty rates,
     7  and the adequacy of the current minimum wage. The report  shall  analyze
     8  the  change  in  living  costs  using  the  various available and widely
     9  consulted cost of living measures, including but not limited to the  MIT
    10  living  wage  calculator,  the  EPI  family  budget  calculator, and the
    11  University of Washington self-sufficiency  standard.  The  report  shall
    12  also  analyze  changes  in poverty and child poverty for households that
    13  include one or more workers, using American Community  Survey  data  for
    14  the  latest  available  year. Such analysis shall examine changes in the
    15  specified measures for each year since December thirty-first, two  thou-
    16  sand eighteen, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability
    17  status,  household size, profession and education level for each of four
    18  regions of the state, which shall be defined as: the city of  New  York;
    19  the  suburban  counties  of  Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau; the Hudson
    20  Valley counties of Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Ulster,  Greene,  Dutchess,
    21  Columbia,  Albany,  and Rensselaer; and the counties of the remainder of
    22  the state. The report shall  also  compare  the  current  and  projected
    23  future  value of the state's upstate minimum wage with the minimum wages
    24  in other high-cost states, including  but  not  limited  to  Washington,

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11116-02-3
        S. 6646                             2

     1  California  and  Hawaii,  and  compare  the current and projected future
     2  value of the state's minimum wage in the city of New York, and the coun-
     3  ties of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk with the minimum wages in  other
     4  high-cost  cities,  including but not limited to Seattle, San Francisco,
     5  Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The commissioner may  include
     6  in  the  report such other analysis as they find useful in assessing the
     7  adequacy of the state's minimum wage. In preparing the report and deter-
     8  mining its methodology, the commissioner shall consult with a three-per-
     9  son advisory committee, the  members  of  which  shall  consist  of  one
    10  appointee  each  by the governor, the temporary president of the senate,
    11  and the speaker of the assembly.
    12    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.