$15 minimum wage could cost Long Island 23,000 jobs, Long Island Association says

Long Island could lose nearly 23,400 jobs and pay $54.4 million more in property taxes if the state minimum wage is raised to $15 per hour, according to a new study.

The eight-page report, from the Long Island Association business group, comes as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Democrats in the State Legislature renew their push for a wage hike. Cuomo, acting without the State Legislature, has instituted the $15 rate for state employees and fast-food workers.

The study also estimated the wage hike would boost local spending by $3 billion between next year and 2021. LIA officials said that would add an undetermined number of jobs.

The LIA also proposed six changes -- to the tax code, workers' compensation bills for companies and aid to local government and charities -- to compensate for higher labor costs.

"We want to present some ideas to offset" a wage rise, said LIA president Kevin Law. "We're putting some ideas on the table to help small businesses."

The group's board of directors will meet next month to consider taking a stand. The minimum wage is now $8.75 and will climb to $9 on Dec. 31.

Law said the layoffs would be primarily on farms, and at restaurants, retailers, factories and nonprofit groups. They would total 2 percent of the 1.3 million workers on the Island.

The study forecast losses of $342 million for Island businesses in the 2016-21 period from the wage increase, and more than $54 million for local governments facing higher labor costs, which in turn would lead to hikes in property taxes.

To reduce the impact, the LIA wants more tax deductions for businesses and an exemption from the minimum wage or offsetting tax credit for companies with annual sales of less than $500,000.

Supporters of the minimum wage increase said it would reduce the welfare and food stamp rolls. "Many workers will be spending more to take care of their families and to build better lives, and this will provide a very positive short- and long-term boost to the local economy," said Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition.

At the State Capitol, Kelly Cummings, a spokeswoman for the State Senate's Republican majority, said, "the LIA proposal . . . would force the state to pick up the entire cost of the minimum wage increase, shifting billions of dollars onto the taxpayers." She said the wage hike "could have serious negative impacts on New Yorkers."

In the Assembly, spokeswoman Kerri Biche said she hadn't seen the report, though the Democratic majority strongly backs a wage hike.

Cuomo aide Rich Azzopardi said the LIA's "conclusions run counter to the findings of the U.S. Labor Department, noted economists and past experience in New York."