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.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4514--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 6, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
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 17 to read as follows:
3 17. 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 available and widely consulted cost
9 of living measures, including, but not limited to the true cost of
10 economic security (TCES) measure, the MIT living wage calculator, the
11 economic policy institute (EPI) family budget calculator, and the
12 University of Washington self-sufficiency standard. The report shall
13 also analyze changes in poverty and child poverty for households that
14 include one or more workers, using American Community Survey data for
15 the latest available year. Such analysis shall examine changes in the
16 specified measures for each year since December thirty-first, two thou-
17 sand eighteen, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability
18 status, household size, profession and education level for each of the
19 four regions of the state, which shall be defined as: the city of New
20 York; the suburban counties of Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau; the
21 Hudson Valley counties of Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Ulster, Greene,
22 Dutchess, Columbia, Albany, and Rensselaer; and the counties of the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08402-05-5
S. 4514--A 2
1 remainder of the state. The report shall also compare the current and
2 projected future value of the state's upstate minimum wage with the
3 minimum wages in other high-cost states, including but not limited to
4 Washington, California and Hawaii, and compare the current and projected
5 future value of the state's minimum wage in the city of New York, and
6 the counties of Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk with the minimum wages
7 in other high-cost cities, including but not limited to Seattle, San
8 Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The commissioner
9 may include in the report such other analysis as they find useful in
10 assessing the adequacy of the state's minimum wage. In preparing the
11 report and determining its methodology, the commissioner shall consult
12 with a three-person advisory committee, the members of which shall
13 consist of one appointee each by the governor, the temporary president
14 of the senate, and the speaker of the assembly.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
