Albany Watch

   The non-partisan Fiscal Policy Institute released a study today that said the increase in the federal minimum wage tomorrow—from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour—will affect an estimated 123,000 New York workers. This is the last of three hikes approved by Congress in 2007. 

   Workers in New York, however, will see a smaller increase because the minimum wage has been $7.15 an hour since January 2007. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages above $7.25 and will not be affected.

   Earning $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker will gross $15,080 a year, less than 83 percent of the $18,310 poverty line for a family of three, the institute said.

   Minimum wage used to go a lot further than it does now, according to the institute. At $7.25 an hour, the state’s minimum wage will be 21 percent below its peak value in 1970—$9.23 in today’s dollars. The inflation rate in New York has been 4 percent since January 2007, the group said.

   “Research has shown that workers benefitting from minimum wage increases in New York are disproportionately women, and minimum wage earners on average contribute most of their family’s earnings,” Michele Mattingly, a research associate with the institute, said in a statement.

   James Parrott, deputy director of the institute, said the state should increase the minimum wage so workers today are on par with workers in 1970 and are above the poverty line. Ten states index their minimum-wage rates to cost-of-living increases, something New York should do, he said.

   This is the history of New York’s minimum wage per hour:

  —pre-1960, varied by industry

  —Oct. 15, 1962, increased to $1.15

  —Oct. 15, 1964, increased to $1.25

  —Jan. 1, 1967, increased to $1.50

  —Feb. 1, 1968, increased to $1.60

  —July 1, 1970, increased to $1.85

  —May 1, 1974, increased to $2.00

  —Jan. 1, 1975, increased to $2.10

  —Jan. 1, 1976, increased to $2.30

  —Oct. 6, 1978, increased to $2.65

  —Jan. 1, 1979, increased to $2.90

  —Jan. 1, 1980, increased to $3.10

  —Jan. 1, 1981, increased to $3.35

  —April 1, 1990, increased to $3.80

  —April 1, 1991, increased to $4.25

  —March 31, 2000, increased to $5.15

  —Jan. 1, 2005, increased to $6.00

  —Jan. 1, 2006, increased to $6.75

  —Jan. 1, 2007, increased to $7.15

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