LIA opposes increasing minimum wage

The head of the Long Island Association leaves no doubt about where the business organization stands on efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour from $7.25 a hour, as Democrats in the New York State Legislature hope to do.

“New York needs to improve its business climate and remain focused on economic development,” said Kevin Law, the group’s president, in a statement released Wednesday. "And, thus, the Long Island Association opposes a government-imposed increase in the minimum wage, and especially efforts to index future increases with the rate of inflation.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has called increasing the minimum wage his top priority. But Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has called the proposed hike a “job killer.”