Cuomo fought efforts to raise the minimum wage before boosting it as governor
NEW YORK — Mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo rallied with several unions Thursday to announce his plan to push for a $20 minimum wage by 2027 — citing his success as governor in raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2016.
But the former political director of one of the city's largest unions remembers it differently — it was Cuomo who remained the biggest obstacle to boosting the minimum wage in the state, until the push for a $15 minimum went national in 2015 and pressured him to act.
'He only got to $15 after massive national campaign pressure and a commitment from SEIU to basically run a multimillion-dollar ad campaign' said Alison Hirsh, who was the political director and vice president for building service workers union 32BJ SEIU at the time.
Hirsh recalled staunch opposition from Cuomo and his administration before they finally got on board with the increase, adding: 'It had nothing to do with actually giving a shit about workers, he just wanted to be able to say, as he had contemplated a national profile, that he was the first in the country to do it, because the winds changed.'
Hirsh is no neutral observer — she now manages the mayoral campaign for Democratic rival Brad Lander. But her accounts were substantiated by two others familiar with the talks around the minimum wage at the time.
Cuomo's plan, first reported today by The New York Times, will need approval from Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has already passed legislation to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. She is up for reelection next year, and will have to weigh liberal pushes like this one against fiscal concerns that may be raised in response from business leaders.
The state minimum wage now stands at $16.50 per hour in New York City, Westchester and Long Island, with the upstate minimum wage at $15.50 per hour.
As governor in early 2014, Cuomo blocked then-Mayor Bill de Blasio's push to raise the minimum wage in New York City, opposing local control over an issue he felt should be dealt with statewide.
With his latest proposal, he's attempting the same thing as the mayor he spent years feuding with.
In initially rejecting de Blasio's 2014 proposal, Cuomo argued that allowing local governments to set their own wage and tax rules could create a 'chaotic situation' and that the issue should be left to the state. In early 2015, when de Blasio suggested a $13 minimum wage for the city, a Cuomo spokesperson called it a 'non-starter' with state lawmakers.
Cuomo was pressured by the Working Families Party in 2014 to back a minimum wage hike as he faced a left-flank challenge from Zephyr Teachout, who was campaigning on the issue. The then-governor recorded a video for the WFP's state convention endorsing an increase along with linking it to inflation. But progressive skepticism that Cuomo truly wanted a hike continued, despite the WFP ultimately supporting his reelection.
After sustained pressure from unions and other advocates, Cuomo finally came around. He announced his support for a $15 minimum wage later in 2015 and signed legislation to that effect the following year. He also faced substantial opposition from the Senate, which was then led by a coalition of Republicans and breakaway Democrats.
Cuomo claimed Thursday his proposal to boost the minimum wage to $20 matches what the city's minimum wage would be today, if the $15 wage had been indexed to inflation in 2016.
'That is the fair way, and that's what we want, and that's what we're going to get passed,' Cuomo said at the rally.
At the time, the Cuomo administration was decidedly against indexing the minimum wage to inflation.
'If he hadn't resisted the efforts at the time in 2016 to have the minimum wage indexed, it would be $20 an hour already,' said James Parrott, senior adviser and fellow at the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. 'In a way he's proposing a solution to a problem he created.'
Hirsh remembered calls with Cuomo and his staff, including top Cuomo advisers Melissa DeRosa, Neal Kwatra and Bill Mulrow, where the team berated her as she pushed for Cuomo to raise the minimum wage.
'Andrew Cuomo would yell and scream, or he'd have Melissa or Neal scream, or Bill Mulrow would be very nice about it and block it, but he blocked every attempt at wage increases,' she said.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi pushed back, saying in a written statement that "not a single person she mentions has any recollection of what she's talking about, but I get it — she's desperate."
"Andrew Cuomo masterminded and executed a successful campaign that led to the first statewide $15 minimum wage law in the nation," he added. "New Yorkers know he has the experience and the record to make this city more affordable and make a $20 minimum wage a reality."
A version of this story first appeared in New York Playbook PM. Subscribe here.
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