ALBANY, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on November 10 that all state employees will soon be paid a minimum of $15 per hour, a wage scale that will be phased in, becoming fully implemented in New York City in 2018 and in the rest of the state by the end of 2021.

This comes after Cuomo appointed a wage board earlier this year to consider the pay of fast-food workers. As expected, the board recommended raising the minimum pay of fast-food workers to $15 per hour. If it were in the Governor’s power to unilaterally change the minimum wage he would do so, but so far Republicans in the Senate have kept the $15 drive from becoming a reality in the state.

At a rally with union employees in attendance for the announcement, Cuomo defended the hike for fast food workers and called the drive to keep their wages low “a scam.” He said, “If you get paid the minimum wage, you are still in poverty in this state. So McDonald’s workers qualify for welfare and for food stamps, and the taxpayers give McDonald’s workers $6,800 in tax subsidies… So we are subsidizing McDonald’s profits and Burger King’s profits, and we don’t want to be in the hamburger business anymore. It is the Mother of all corporate loopholes, where they won’t pay a fair and decent wage so that the taxpayers have to cover the subsidy.”

Critics on the other hand say because the increase is so large compared to statewide and federal minimum wages, it would result in a serious loss of jobs. The American Action Forum published a paper on the impact of a statewide $15 minimum. “The key finding: a $15 minimum wage ultimately would cost the state at least 200,000 jobs, with proportionately larger employment decreases in upstate regions.”