Spitzer Launches Campaign About Higher Minimum Wage

New York State Attorney General Spitzer today announced a campaign to create awareness and increase enforcement of the new $6.00 an hour minimum wage. The initiative will generate greater awareness among New York State’s workforce about the new minimum wage. It will also provide low wage workers with a procedure to notify the Attorney General’s Office of cases where employers have not increased their workers’ minimum wage.

On January 1, 2005, the New York State minimum wage was increased to $6 an hour. It will increase to $6.75 an hour on January 1, 2006 and to $7.15 an hour on January 1, 2007.

As part of his outreach efforts, Spitzer and members of his Labor Bureau met with leaders representing the Latino, South Asian, African, Haitian, Polish, Korean and Chinese communities and with various labor groups. The leaders learned about new enforcement procedures that have been instituted and resources available to workers.

Workers who are not receiving the new $6.00 hourly minimum wage should contact the Attorney General’s Labor Bureau at 212-416-8700. The Bureau will contact the employer without revealing the name of the complaining worker, inform it of the new minimum wage and allow a short time for voluntarily compliance. If it becomes necessary, the Bureau will commence appropriate enforcement proceedings

"We need to create awareness of workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities. Our efforts will let workers know the pay to which they are entitled and help employers abide by the law," said Attorney General Spitzer. "Employers will be given the opportunity to voluntarily comply, but my office will stand ready to vigorously enforce minimum wage and overtime laws."
A recently released spot survey conducted by The $5.15 is not Enough coalition confirmed low levels of awareness among workers concerning their immediate entitlement to the new minimum wage. Results among the workers surveyed revealed that 86% did not know that the minimum wage was now $6 an hour. Seventy five percent of the of the employers surveyed did not know the correct minimum wage. The surveys were based upon canvasses of commercial strips in the five boroughs.

An information card created by the Attorney General’s Labor Bureau provides details about the new minimum wage including its application to those who regularly receive tips from customers. The minimum wage increase informational card is available in ten languages – English, Spanish, French, Korean, traditional and simplified Chinese, Urdu, Bangla, Hindi, and Russian.

The Attorney General’s Office will continue working with community groups and others to disseminate the information card at community, service, and labor organizations; food pantries; earned income credit tax clinics, and churches. Over 125,000 tip cards have already been distributed state-wide through such groups.

Individuals and organizations can obtain copies of the tip cards for distribution by calling the Labor Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office at (212) 416-8700 or online at www.ag.ny.gov.

Attachments:

• Minimum Wage Tip Card
  

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