On Wednesday, May 28th, Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who has been leading in the polls as a mayoral candidate in New York City, announced his plan to raise the minimum wage in New York City to $20 per hour if elected.
At the announcement of this plan, Cuomo received support from several major unions including the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 1500, representing over 76,000 members in New York City.
At the rally announcing the proposal, there were also 400 members from the aforementioned unions as well as carpenters’ unions, hotel and casino workers’ unions from the surrounding areas, and members of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union (32BJ SEIU).
Cuomo plans to raise the hourly wage of all workers in New York City who meet the state’s minimum wage standards to $20 by 2027; approximately 800,000 workers are expected to benefit from this proposal.
Following the news, Brooklyn City Councilor Wenyi Zhuo expressed support for Cuomo’s plan on a social media platform, stating that “workers in New York City should receive a wage that keeps pace with the cost of living… this is how we make the city more affordable for ordinary citizens!”
“New York City needs to be a place where working families can afford to live and thrive, and currently, too many people in what should be the greatest city in the world cannot achieve that,” Cuomo said. “The best way to address affordability issues is by constructing new housing and raising wages. As mayor, I will continue the successful experience of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour during my tenure as governor. We have proven that critics who claim raising the minimum wage would hinder economic development are wrong, on the contrary; the current economic conditions have significantly increased the cost of living in New York City, and to alleviate the burden on the working class in New York, we should raise the minimum wage to $20.”
Cuomo expressed his gratitude for the strong support from the unions, stating that “their support is significant because these unions understand the current situation in New York City – hardworking men and women are struggling to make ends meet, and the government cannot stand idly by.”
The RWDSU union issued a statement saying that Cuomo is “the person who can represent New York in resisting Trump,” and praised Cuomo for implementing policies such as the $15 minimum wage.
If all 800,000 workers in New York City were full-time employees working 2,000 hours per year, the impact of the $20 minimum wage policy on wages is estimated to be around $4 billion. However, as half of minimum wage workers work part-time, the estimated impact of this plan is around $3 billion.
Under current law, the minimum wage in New York City is set to be around $17.50 as of January 1, 2027, reflecting a 3% increase over the $17 minimum wage set for January 1, 2026; this figure has risen in line with the expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth.
The proposed $20 minimum wage is roughly in line with the Consumer Price Index for all cities in the East since 2016. In other words, if the minimum wage is linked to the index with a compound annual growth rate of 2.7% for 10 consecutive years, the minimum wage would be $19.57.
The proposal also calls on the New York City government to complete a cost of living study before January 1, 2027, to provide a reference for indexing the $20 minimum wage in the future.
Furthermore, to better support small business employers during the transition to a $20 minimum wage, Cuomo proposes introducing a Small Business Adjustment Tax Credit policy to alleviate financial pressure on small businesses with 10 employees or fewer.
Eligible employers in the proposal can receive a refundable tax credit, up to 30% of each employee’s salary increase, and the credit will gradually decrease annually as the business adjusts. The Small Business Adjustment Tax Credit policy mirrors a similar tax credit policy that aligns with Cuomo’s efforts as governor in 2016 to raise the minimum wage to $15.
Cuomo has already garnered support from over 20 unions and dozens of elected officials from various levels in New York State; he remains the candidate with the highest level of support among mayoral candidates. In a poll released this week by another mayoral candidate, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, Cuomo still received the highest 40% of the vote in the first round of rankings, while Mamdani received 27%; support for other Democratic candidates remains in the single digits.