ALBANY, NY - Governor Andrew Cuomo says he'll be taking a serious look at the money fast-food workers are paid and whether it's enough to live on.
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Cuomo says he's directing his labor commissioner to assemble a panel to look at the pay. Cuomo says entry-level food service workers in New York State earn on average about $17,000 a year.
The panel could make wage recommendations which Cuomo says do not require legislative approval. Efforts to raise the minimum wage have stalled in the legislature recently.
Buffalo will play a key role in the panel that could end up recommending a pay increase for the state's fast-food workers.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is one of the three people on the panel. As of late Thursday night, we had not heard back from his spokesperson.
There will also be two public hearings. The first will happen in Buffalo, but the date hasn't been announced yet.
This would only impact people employed by the fast-food industry.
The Governor told a crowd at a rally in Manhattan Thursday that many fast-food workers receive government assistance, and he thinks big companies are not paying a living wage.
"I want to get out of the hamburger business. I don't want the taxpayers of New York subsidizing the profits of McDonald's anymore, and this has to end," said Governor Andrew Cuomo. "I think their situation is a fraud. I think their profits are based on unpaid wages, and unpaid employee expenses, and costs that have been improperly transferred to government."
The state's minimum wage will increase to $9 an hour at the end of the year. The state labor commissioner will have the final say on whether to give fast-food workers an additional raise. The panel has until the end of July to make a recommendation.
