Skelos rejoinder: Minimum-wage hike could cause job losses

In a letter Monday, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) blasted Senate Democrats over a proposal to hike the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour.

Skelos cited “concerns” raised by business groups and studies that increasing the rate from $7.25 an hour “would drive up costs for businesses and could cause significant job losses at a time when we are working so hard to create jobs in New York.”

However, the letter, addressed to Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), stopped short of saying that Skelos or the Republican majority would block an increase.

The letter was in response to one sent last week by Sampson that urged a minimum wage increase. The Republican instead hit back, excoriating Democrats for raising taxes and fees to plug the state deficits after the financial meltdown, calling Sampson’s concern for workers “disingenuous.” 

Skelos wrote that Republicans were “finally making progress undoing the damaged you cause to business in New York State.”

Mike Murphy, spokesman for the Senate Democrats accused Skelos of “playing a nice game of smoke and mirrors.”

 “The fact of the matter is that the Senate Republicans have proven over and over again that they would rather look out for their own special interests than those of the working men and women of New York,” Murphy said in a statement.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has made increasing the minimum wage a priority and plans hearings on the matter when the Legislature returns next week. The legislative session is set to end June 21.