Demos Applauds NY Wage Board Decision

Demos Vice President of Policy and Research Tamara Draut issued the following statement:

"After two months of deliberations, hearings, and moving testimonies, the wage board created by Governor Cuomo voted yesterday to recommend a wage increase in a series of steps to $15 an hour by 2018 in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state. Fast-food workers’ decision to challenge their powerful corporate bosses was a huge risk—and it paid off.

"Demos has made the case for better pay in fast-food loudly and publicly. Our research highlighted the egregious 1,000-to-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the fast food sector.

"Further, since fast-food companies disproportionately employ Black and Latino workers in lower-paying jobs, raising wages at the bottom will not only give all fast-food workers a much needed raise, it’ll help close the racial wage gap.

"And momentum is growing across the country. When a state like New York—home to the most economically unequal cities in the country—delivers justice to fast food workers, it sends a loud message: the time is now for higher wages."